The Mysterious Springs
by aquagon
Summary: Following a request of defeating a youkai, the group finds a couple of water springs in a cave. Inuyasha and Kagome are hypnotized by them, and upon drinking from one, they are turned into children, with Kagome losing all her memories and Inuyasha only part of it. What will the others do now they have to take care of their two friends as well as protecting the final Shikon shard?
1. The Legendary Youkai

Chapter 1:

The Legendary Youkai

(Opening: Change the World)

Shortly after the events in Hourai Island, Inuyasha, Kagome and the rest of the group continued with their journey in search of way to defeat Naraku while they protected the last shard of the Shikon Pearl. This was a legendary jewel that had the special trait of increasing the strength of youkai: the demonic creatures of Japanese folklore.

But before that…

They decided to stop at Kaede's Village, as Kagome needed to return to her era to gather provisions for their next travels, and she also needed to take a couple of exams. This caused a large discussion between her and Inuyasha the previous day…

- "For the last time, Inuyasha, I've got to go back to my era to take these exams or I'm going to fail the year!" – Kagome said, and she was already from a very bad mood from this. She and Inuyasha were standing near their friends in a large plain surrounded by forests that where the Bone Eater's Well was located - "And surely, you'd like to have more of that food I always bring with me, right?" -

- "Keh, I don't care, as I'm already sick of you always having to return to your time for stupid things like these, especially because Naraku could go after you to take the shard away!" – the half-demon answered with a terrible face filled with anger.

- 'Can someone be so stubborn!?' – an irritated Kagome thought, and then she uttered - "Inuyasha..." -

Inuyasha felt some shivers going down his spine, as these words signaled what was coming to him…

- "SIT DOWN!" – Kagome finished.

The necklace Inuyasha had around his neck suddenly shone, and immediately later, it made Inuyasha fall face-first and strongly against the ground.

- "Well, Kagome, come back son! Good luck!" - Sango cheerfully said to her friend.

- "Yes, we'll be awaiting your return" - added Miroku as he made a gesture to bid her farewell.

- "And don't forget about these sweets I like so much!" – Shippou told her enthusiastically.

- "Don't worry, I won't forget! See you later!" - Kagome said joyfully to then jump into the well.

- "Damn that Kagome," – Inuyasha uttered angrily while he stood up again - "I'll make her pay someday!" -

After saying goodbye to Kagome, the group arrived to Kaede's village to rest for a while. I

Shortly after their arrival, the village elder, Kaede, went to greet them...

- "Ah, hello, everyone. It has been a long time since I last saw any of you" – she told them as soon as she was near them.

- "Good afternoon, Kaede-sama" – Sango greeted her - "How have you been?" -

- "Very well, thank you" – Kaede replied - "And I came because I need to talk about something important with you all"

- "What is it, Kaede-sama?" - Miroku asked in a serious tone.

- "Well, Houshi-sama, I've heard that there is a youkai inhabiting the valley at the west of the village, and it devours anyone that tries getting close to that place" – Kaede explained, showing how worried she was about a youkai being so close to the village.

- "I know, I know. So you want us to go and kill that thing, baabaa?" - Inuyasha asked in a very rude manner - "That'd only be a waste of time" -

- "Well, I actually intended to ask you this" - Kaede answered without allowing herself to get flustered by Inuyasha - "but I've also heard that this youkai has such a great resistance that I don't think that even the arrows my sister used could harm it, and your sword even less" -

- "Damn it! You're saying my powers are useless against that freak!?" - Inuyasha replied extremely angry.

Kaede's words also worried the others quite a bit: her sister was Kikyou, one of the most powerful Miko ever known, so if the youkai was powerful enough to be immune to both her arrows and the great powers of Inuyasha's sword, Tessaiga, they wouldn't stand a chance against it.

- "No if you join your powers with Kagome" – Kaede replied, completely indifferent to Inuyasha's utter lack of manners, but she then noticed that Kagome was nowhere to be found - "And now I think about it, where she has gone now?" -

- "Kagome went back to her time. She said that there were some pending things she had to do, but that she'd come back in a few days" – Sango replied.

- "Very well. Then, you should get ready for when she comes back, if you decide to accept this task" – Kaede told them as she began go away.

- "Of course we're accepting it, baabaa!" – Inuyasha screamed.

Three days later...

Kagome had yet to return from her time, so Inuyasha had already grown impatient from waiting for her. The group was gathered in the plain near the well, with Inuyasha sitting cross-legged and tapping his arms with his fingers in impatience.

- "Arghh... Kagome is taking too long!" – he said while he stood up - "I'll go after her!" -

- "Wait, Inuyasha," – Sango told him in warning tone - "if you go now, you might make her mad at you!" -

- "If you want to make Kagome-sama angry, feel free to go ahead" – Miroku added with a great calm.

- "Dammit..." – he said with a rage-filled face. He then walked up to the well and jumped inside.

- "He's a fool." - Shippou sighed after Inuyasha left.

Meanwhile, in Kagome's time…

She was having a nice chat with her friends at school after their classes had ended, although the topic they were touching was a rather depressing one to her.

- "Well, how do you think you did at the exams?" – Kagome asked.

- "I think I did pretty well, as I studied a lot before them" – Yuka answered.

- "And you, Ayumi?" -

- "I'm sure I got some nice marks, too" – her friends answered.

- "The same goes for me," – Eri said - "And you, Kagome?" -

- "I'd say that at least I passed the year…" – she said as she put a somewhat embarrassed face.

- "Well, at least that's something" – Eri told her as she patted her shoulder.

- "Yeah. It's not weird, as you spent most of this year sick at home" – Yuka added.

- "Well, yeah..." – Kagome replied, but she felt quite embarrassed.

- "You're gonna celebrate the end of term over at home, right?" - Yuka asked, trying to cheer her up.

- "That's right" – she replied slightly happier - "and what about you?" -

- "We're doing the same," – Eri replied - "Hey, what do you all say about meeting up next week, before the end of term party?" -

- "That sounds great!" – the others replied in unison.

- "Well, I'll see you later... It's because Inuyasha wants to see me" – Kagome uttered as she blushed.

- "Are you talking about your boyfriend?" – Ayumi asked, and after Kagome nodded, she said:

- "Well, I hope you have good luck handling him" -

And after Kagome went away, Ayumi looked sternly at the other two girls, and told them:

- "And this time, don't dare to spy on them, okay?" -

- "All right" – Yuka replied in disappointment.

- "No problem" – Eri replied with the same expression as Yuka.

As for Kagome, she went to the house in the middle of the Higurashi Shrine, where her, her little brother Souta, her mother and her grandfather lived ever since her father had died in a traffic accident. Upon opening the traditional-styled sliding door, she noticed that something weird was happening because all lights were off.

- "I'm home!" – she announced, while thinking to herself how strange it was that everything was so dark.

- "Sis..." – Souta suddenly appeared and talked fearfully, as if something wrong had happened.

- "Souta, what's happening…?" – Kagome asked a bit scared but them...

- "Surprise!" – Souta said as he jumped and the lights in the house came on. Then the entirety of the Higurashi family went out of the living room and into the entrance...

- "Happy end of term!" – they wished Kagome as they led her to the dining room. It was a relatively small room with yellow walls that had in its center a large Japanese-styled table where everyone sat down to eat.

- "How were the exams?" – her mother, Mrs. Higurashi, asked once they sat at the table.

- "Fine! I think I did pretty well!" – Kagome replied with a large smile. She felt much more confident about it in company of her family.

- "Whoa! Well done, sis!" – Souta told her cheerfully.

- "Congratulations, dear. I see you've done your best to continue your studies, even in the middle of your travels" – Mrs. Higurashi told her as she rose from the table - "I've prepared this as a reward for your great efforts" –

She went to the kitchen, and when she returned, Mrs. Higurashi had a large cake in her arms. It was a two-story strawberry cake with some cream on its borders.

- "Whoa, thanks!" - Kagome said, impressed at the size of the cake - "I'm sure that my friends will love it!" -

- "It looks pretty good" – Kagome's grandfather said as he examined the cake.

Then they cut a piece of it for each and began eating it. When they were about to finish their pieces, Inuyasha entered the dining room.

- "Hiya" -

- "Inuyasha?" – Kagome said, about to fall to the floor from his sudden appearance - "What are you doing here?" -

- "I came to see what you were doing," - he replied to then fix his eyes on the cake and how everyone were eating it – What's that weird looking thing? It's edible?" -

- "It's a cake, and it's a very delicious kind of sweet" – Kagome answered. She then cut and gave him a piece - "Don't you want to try it?"

- "Lessee then…" - Inuyasha said accepting it in a distrustful manner. He then sniffed the piece and took a very small bite from it. He began trembling - "It's... It's... tasty!" -

He then gulped down the rest of the piece in a single bite.

- "Gimme other piece!" – Inuyasha said excitedly - "Just one more piece!" -

- "Wait!" – Kagome said alarmed, trying to calm him down - "We have to save some for the others!" -

Inuyasha then began trying to jump to what remained of the cake to gulp it too, when…

- "Sit down!" – Kagome said, making Inuyasha crash into the floor as he began his jump.

- "Ugh!" – Inuyasha growled as he stood up - "Why didja do that!?" -

- "Sorry!" – Kagome apologized - "But if I didn't calm down you down, you wouldn't have left anything for the others. Besides, you'd have smeared the entire room with the cake" -

- "Damn!" - Inuyasha grunted making a face of displeasure, but he then remembered why he had come, and greatly opening his eyes… - "Ah! I almost forgot about this: Kaede wants us to go and slay a youkai". -

- "Uh, well..." – Kagome began – "Now you mention it, I had to go back around this time… Sorry! I forgot about it!" –

She said it while waving her hand in a carefree way, which was something that Inuyasha greatly despised.

- "You don't know how much I hate that way of apologizing you have" – Inuyasha said crossing his arms and narrowing his eyes in anger - "Well, are you coming or what?" -

- "But, I..." – Kagome began, to then turn towards her mother - "Mom..." -

- "Don't worry about us, and just go" – her mother said in a tranquilizing tone – "I think you have everything ready to get going, right?" -

- "Yeah, and I'll come back as soon as I can" - she said while she took her big yellow backpack, which was beside the dining room's door, and put it over her shoulders. She then left the room with Inuyasha at her side - "Thanks for the cake!" -

They went to the well, returned to the Sengoku Era, and met back with the others in Kaede's village. A little later, they decided to sit down for lunch in a nearby prairie between two forests, and Kagome served them the remaining pieces of the cake as a dessert.

After they finished eating, Kagome asked:

- "And, how did you like the cake?" -

- "It's the tastiest thing I've ever eaten!" – Shippou said as he jumped in joy– "Thanks!" -

- "Yeah, it tastes pretty good" – Sango added.

- "It's the sweetest delicacy I've ever had the privilege of tasting" – Miroku said as he put an ecstatic face.

- "And the other hand, I've also brought a couple of things that I thought could be useful to us" - Kagome said as she went to her backpack and pulled from it a couple of binoculars and an antenna connected to earphones.

- "What are these things?" – Sango asked as she and the others looked at the items with great interest.

- "These are binoculars, which are used to see faraway things, and this other item is an artifact that allows you to listen from great distances" – Kagome explained, to then teach them how to use them. Once they ended their lessons, Kaede came out to greet them.

- "And well, are you all ready? – she asked everyone.

- "Yes, where's that valley located?" – Kagome asked.

- "In that place at the west of the village" – she said as she pointed in direction of a small valley that was quite a distance away from the village - "I wish you the best of luck, and hope to see you all here again soon" -

They then began their trip to the valley, and although they had a few minor problems in the road to it, nothing worthy of mention happened. After a few hours, they reached the valley, which was filled with water puddles and had a large cave at the end…

- "So this is the place that this infamous youkai inhabits" - Miroku said as he surveyed the place with great interest.

- " Hah, Looks like that so-called powerful youkai is no more than a piece of trash" – Inuyasha growled with his arms crossed.

- "Wait, I think I know what kind of youkai this one is" – Sango suddenly said, who had already changed into her battle clothes.

- "Are you serious?" – an impressed Kagome asked.

- "Yes, my father once told me that this legendary youkai, Goukira, protected the entrance to a cave where a great secret was hidden" – Sango explained in a mysterious voice.

- "What kind of secret could that be?" – Miroku asked himself as he put his hand to his chin.

- "I don't know. What I do know it's that Goukira can't be defeated by a human, hanyou, youkai or Miko by themselves" – Sango answered with a voice filled with tension.

- "Then, what we're supposed to do!? – Inuyasha said as he took out Tessaiga from its scabbard. He did so because a gigantic tortoise that had its shell made from crystal and its skin covered in dragon scales had come out from the cave and was approaching them. This was Goukira.

- "Impudents!" – the gigantic monster screamed - "Did you come to try to steal my secret!?" -

- "We're here to finish you off!" – Inuyasha screamed while the others prepared for the coming battle.

- "This will be fun. Just try to harm me, if you can!" – Goukira taunted them.

Right away, Inuyasha began testing his attacks: he launched a large holden energy wave at it with Tessaiga: his trademark Kaze no Kizu technique, which was capable of eliminating a hundred youkai in a single swipe. However, this didn't even manage to scratch Goukira's thick skin.

- "Hehehe, that's everything you can do? Good-for-nothing hanyou? – the youkai laughed at him - "Take this!" -

Then, it threw from its mouth a ball of black energy to Inuyasha. Inuyasha just smirked as the attack got closer and closer to him.

- "You're an idiot!" – he screamed as he raised his sword - "Bakuryuuha!" -

Inuyasha swung his sword against the attack, launching a Kaze no Kizu wave that mixed up with the energy ball to create a light-blue whirlwind that trampled Goukira. However, this didn't do any damage to it either.

- "Dammit, the Bakuryuuha didn't even scratch it. I only have one more technique left..." – Inuyasha muttered under his breath while he made his sword cover in crystal - "Kongousouha!" -

He then swung his sword strongly, launching a swarm of diamonds that were sent flying towards Goukira, but this didn't manage to harm it at all either.

- "He..he...he...," – the youkai began laughing loudly - "that's everything you've got?" -

- "Take this!" - Kagome screamed as she raised her bow.

She then shot an arrow covered with a purple aura, followed by other one covered in a blue aura, but neither managed to harm Goukira.

- "A miko!" – Goukira screamed - "You'll be a nice snack once I've finished with everyone here!" -

Meanwhile, Miroku looked with impotency at the battle in which his friends were taking part: Sango launching her boomerang and trying to slash it with her wakizashi to then ride and take off into the air on the back of her pet cat youkai, Kirara; while Inuyasha repeated his techniques and Kagome fired her arrows, none of which were doing anything to their opponent.

- "I can't do anything," – he lamented as he looked at his cursed hand, which contained a black hole called the Kazaana that allowed him to suck enemies into other dimension, although in time this would end up absorbing him himself- "it's too large for me to absorb it with my Kazaana…" -

- "Hiraikotsu!" - Sango screamed as she threw her boomerang to Goukira from the air, but this didn't manage to do any damage to the monster.

And to make matters worse, Shippou began screaming as if he had lost his mind.

- "Aaah! We're gonna die!" -

- "Stop saying stupid things!" – Inuyasha growled at him to turn to face the youkai again - "Don't give up! We'll defeat it, no matter what!" -

Then the youkai faced them as he put a very unpleasant expression on its reptilian visage.

- "I've gotten bored from this child's game!" – he said as he began charging energy into his mouth - "Die!" -

The energy then took the shape of a large sphere and Goukira launched it. Inuyasha was very worried; as he didn't know what he could do to counter such a powerful attack, but then an idea came to his mind.

- "That's it!" – he said as he turned to Kagome, - "Kagome, remember how we defeated the Shitoushin?" -

Kagome initially didn't catch what he meant, but she then realized what Inuyasha's point was.

- "Ah, you want us to use that technique combination?" –

- "Yeah, that!" – Inuyasha replied to then get ready - "Let's do it!" -

- "All right," – she said as she readied an arrow - "here it goes!" -

She shot the arrow, which covered itself in a purple aura.

- "Now!" – Inuyasha roared as he crystallized his sword and swung it.

Upon doing so, a Bakuryuuha made of crystal was created by using the large energy ball as its source, and in the air, both the crystal whirlwind and the arrow mixed with each other, forming a powerful wave of light that trampled the youkai. This was what finally did the trick.

- "Nooo!" - Goukira screamed in horrible pain as the powerful attack began destroying it piece by piece - "How could I be defeated by a useless hanyou and some humans?" -

- "Because you're the useless here!" – Inuyasha scorned him.

- "Aaaaggghhhh!" – the youkai screamed as it disintegrated into the whirlwind. A few instants later, nothing remained of it.

- "Heh, we did it!" – Inuyasha said as he and the others began celebrating their victory in their own way: he put his sword over his shoulder, Shippou began jumping up and down, Kagome put her hands together and smiled in relief and Sango looked cheerfully at Kirara and her Hiraikotsu… However, Miroku wasn't celebrating, and instead looked at the cave with a worried expression

- "Is anything wrong, Houshi-sama?" – Sango asked upon noticing his attitude.

- "I feel something suspicious coming from that cave" – he replied in a mysterious voice.

- "Something suspicious?" – Kagome asked.

- "Like what, exactly?" – Shippou asked Miroku, but he just limited himself to closing his eyes before sighing and saying in defeat:

- "I'm not sure" -

- "It can't be other youkai," – Inuyasha said as he sniffed the air - "I don't perceive any odors aside of moist and water coming from that place" -

- "Should we go and investigate, then?" – Sango asked, and after everyone nodded in agreement with her suggestion, they entered the cave...

The cave was pretty weird, as the rock in which it was carved was of a crystalline blue, and inside there were two springs, each of which had what seemed to be a stone bowl to catch the water that came from them. Above each spring there was an engraving in a language that none of the group members could read, as it wasn't in Japanese or other languages they had ever seen: it looked like a group of weird symbols. The water from the left spring gave off a light pink shine, while the right spring shone in dark blue.

- "There's something I don't like at all about this place…" – Sango said as she looked around in all directions.

- "I agree, my dear Sango" – Miroku said behind her – "Although I must say that this is a very appropriate situation for me to give you a massage, so you can relax…" -

He then began groping her butt, as he always did whenever he had the chance, and immediately later, a loud slap echoed throughout the cave.

- "How do you dare to do that in a moment like this!?" – Sango screamed in rage - "And who told you that massages were done in that area!?" –

- "I apologize, I couldn't control myself" – Miroku said as he laughed nervously, now with a red shining print left by Sango's hand on his right cheek. But then, he noticed that Kagome looked a little weird.

- "Hm, Kagome-sama, what are you doing?" – he asked doubtfully.

Sango and Shippou turned to look at both her and Inuyasha, and noticed something weird… that their eyes had lost their shine, as if they were under hypnosis or something. They then began walking to the pink water spring.

- "Kagome, Inuyasha, what are you two doing!?" – Sango asked worriedly - "We mustn't get close to these springs without knowing what they are!" -

- "I'm... thirsty..." – Kagome replied with a distant and faint voice.

- "I want... water..." – Inuyasha said with that voice tone.

- "Hey, stop!" – Shippou screamed.

However, both Kagome and Inuyasha acted as if they didn't hear anything of what their friends said and began getting closer to the left spring, as if they were in a trance. The others struggled against them in an attempt to stop them, but it was in vain, as Kagome and Inuyasha repelled them as if they had a barrier surrounding them… and once they got close enough to the spring, they took a little water from the bowl between their hands and drank it up.

- "What do you think you're doing!?" – Shippou asked in anguish.

- "They look like someone or something was controlling them!" – Sango said worried.

The next instant, both Kagome and Inuyasha closed their eyes and fell unconscious to the rocky ground of the cave.

- "We should carry them back to the village. They don't seem to be in good condition" – Miroku suggested after they had examined their unconscious bodies. They seemed to have fallen in a deep sleep, but their breathing was agitated and loud.

- "Agreed. They'll be able to recover better over there" – Sango added.

- "Well then, I'll take care of carrying Kagome-sama" – Miroku said with an enthusiastic face.

- "No, I'll better take care of Kagome" – Sango snorted as she gave him a killer glare - "You take care of Inuyasha, Houshi-sama"

Miroku couldn't do anything beyond accepting while he laughed nervously. However, while they made their way back to the village, something unexpected happened: something no one among them could even have imagined happening and that would change the course of their adventures...

During their walk back to the village, Sango felt something odd about Kagome...

- "Houshi-sama... Don't you feel anything strange?" - she asked Miroku.

- "What do you mean, Sango?" – the monk asked dumbfounded.

- "I'm not sure why, but I'm feeling Kagome getting lighter and lighter..." – Sango answered.

- "Well, something similar is happening to me with Inuyasha, he feels less heavy now..." - Miroku said, but then Shippou interrupted him with a scream while he stood still, looking in horror at the backs of Miroku and Sango.

- "Shippou, what happened!? Are any youkai around?" – Sango said as she looked alarmed in all directions.

- "No, it's that... It's..." - Shippou tried saying something, but it seemed that his voice didn't want to cooperate with him.

- "Speak up already, Shippou!" – Miroku told him impatiently.

- "It's that... they're shrinking!" – he finally screamed as he pointed to Inuyasha and Kagome.

- "What!? But this is impossible!" – Sango said while she lowered Kagome from her back to check on her, and she got a great and unpleasant surprise...

- "This can't be! I don't know how, but Kagome did shrink down... She looks like a kid now!" – Sango said while she tried to understand what had happened.

- "What!?" – Miroku said while he put Inuyasha down too, and he noticed that the same thing had happened to him, with a small difference...

- "Looks like they both returned to being children, but why did something like this happen?" - said Miroku, as he then noticed something - "And that isn't all: Kagome-sama's clothes now are too large for her, but Inuyasha's still fit him perfectly!" -

He said this because Kagome's face, which was now rounder and with a more childlike appearance, barely could be seen in the middle of the lump of fabrics that used to be her clothes. Her hands and arms were now covered by the sleeves of her uniform's shirt, and her legs and feet were covered by her skirt. At that moment, they noticed that her shoes and socks were in the ground behind them, and the same was true for her backpack, bow and quiver.

- "It must be because they drank the water from that strange spring," – Sango said, beginning to understand what had just happened - "as for the clothes, Inuyasha's still fit him because his outfit magically adjusts to the body of its owner. After all, his clothes are made from Fire-Rat wool and have gotten stained with his blood several times "-

- "Do you think we should wake them up?" – Miroku asked as he looked at them.

- "No, let's take them to the village first, and we'll see how they are once they have regained consciousness" – Sango decided. They then picked up Kagome's things and continued their road to the village.

Once they arrived to the village, they went directly to the hut where Kaede lived, which was a single room place as all the peasant homes at the time, where there was only enough space for cooking and sleeping in the wooden floor that surrounded a small hearth. They then began explaining to Kaede what had happened after they put Kagome and Inuyasha into two separate futon and allowed them to sleep. When they finished explaining…

- "But, how did this happen to them?" – Kaede asked them, amazed at these happenings.

- "We think that this happened because of the water in that strange spring" – Sango answered.

- "What spring are you talking about?" – Kaede asked her again. She seemed fearful of something.

- "Of the spring in the cave that was guarded by that youkai" – Miroku answered.

- "Hmmm... It's very possible that it's the cause, as there were many rumors about springs that have the power of controlling the age of the people, one being able to rejuvenate and the other one having effects that I'm not aware of. However, no one had ever sought these waters between the youkai that guarded them and the fact that they supposedly have very unpleasant side-effects" – Kaede explained thoughtfully. Apparently, Miroku's reply had confirmed her suspicions.

- "And what effects are we talking about?" – Shippou asked worriedly.

- "I don't know," – she replied in defeat, and sighed before continuing - "I believe we'll know once they awaken" -

- "And they seemed to be under someone's control when they drank that water..." – Miroku began, but Kaede raised a hand to make him stop.

- "Yes, it seems like the rejuvenating water exerts some kind of mind control over those that have a great level of spiritual power, or have the mixed blood of humans and youkai in their veins" – Kaede said.

- "And shouldn't we change Kagome's clothes?" – Sango inquired while she looked at her friend, who now had a neutral expression and breathed slowly - "If she awakens while wearing clothes that are so large for her, she's sure to have a heart attack" -

- "Hmm, well... I think I have something here that will fit her well enough" – Kaede said as she went to the rear of the hut to search.

After a while, she returned with a couple of items folded in her arms: a red and orange checkered kosode in her arms, which was adorned with white pearls, and a dark blue obi; and she gave them to Sango.

- "The guys should wait outside while we change her, especially you, Houshi-sama" – Sango said while she threw an enraged gaze at Miroku.

Shippou and Miroku went outside of the house and began waiting until both women had finished. Inuyasha, of course, didn't factor in this because he was unconscious.

- "Now this is a strange and annoying situation, as we don't only have to continue searching for Naraku, but we also have to act as babysitters..." – Miroku complained as he leaned on one of the hut's walls.

- "Cough, cough" - Shippou coughed angry.

- "Ah, no offense intended, Shippou." – Miroku said as he showed him a nervous smile.

- 'This is great! Now that we're all kids, Inuyasha won't be able to continue hitting me and Kagome will be able to play with me anytime! This is gonna be interesting!' – Shippou thought as he looked at the sky with a joy-filled face. He then began fantasizing about himself playing with Kagome calmly on a grass field, and about him bullying Inuyasha while the other cried.

Upon having that mental image, Shippou began dancing as he shouted - "Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!" which made Miroku look at him in the same way he would look at a madman.

- "Houshi-sama, Shippou!" – Sango's voice called them after a while - "We've finished! Come in!" -

- "Finally!" – Miroku said as he entered the hut.

- "Let's see how Kagome looks now…" – Shippou said as he giggled.

When they entered, they noticed that Inuyasha was still the same as when they had gone out. On the other hand, Kagome still was unconscious but was now wearing the kosode that Kaede had shown them, whose sleeves extended to her wrists and the hem extended to her ankles.

Her uniform was folded over her backpack, excepting for the red kerchief of her shirt. The only odd thing was that now Kagome had her hair styled in a way similar to Kikyou and Kaede, excepting for the fact she had it tied up with a red bow.

- "We came up with the idea of changing up her hairstyle, and decided to use the kerchief from her clothes to tie it up" – Sango said when she noticed the expression that Miroku and Shippou put upon seeing Kagome's change in appearance.

- "What do you think?" – Kaede asked gently.

- "She looks pretty" - Shippou said as he looked at Kagome, who was now beginning to move.

- "Looks like she's awakening!" – Sango said, and the others came closer to see her. However, they continued gazing at her a little too much, as they noticed that now Kagome looked almost identical to other child they knew called Rin, excepting for her hairdo and the shape of her eyes.

After a few instants, Kagome opened her eyes and sat up on the futon. However, she didn't look relieved or gave any signs of recognizing where she was, and instead kept on looking at everyone with an expression of utter confusion.

- "Are you all right?" – Kaede asked worriedly when she noticed the way in which Kagome was looking at them.

- "Excuse me, lady... who are you and where I am?" – a confused Kagome asked.

- "What?" – Sango said, as she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

- "I asked who she was. I don't know who you are, and I don't know who I'm either" – Kagome said while looking at Sango, very weirded out.

- "You mean that you don't remember anything?" – Miroku asked in shock.

- "No, I don't remember anything at all" – Kagome calmly answered.

- "Wait, your name is..." – Sango began telling her, but Kaede seemed to have understood something: she interrupted her, and made gestures to Sango, Shippou and Miroku to come closer to her, so she could whisper something to them.

- "Wait! I think this is one of the water's effects: the one who drank it will lose his or her memory, and if you try to make that person remember these memories, you'll only drive them to madness! You can't either make them remember their true name if they have forgotten it!" – Kaede hastily explained.

- "Eh, well..." – Sango had to think fast so this didn't seem suspicious - "Your name is… Miko; and this is Kaede-sama. You live in this village and Kaede-sama is your guardian. We're right now in her house" -

- "Well..." – Kaede took a deep breath before continuing – "Miko, are you okay?" -

- "Yeah, I think I'm fine" - Miko (Kagome) answered with a smile after having heard that explanation. However, she then pointed to her things and her old clothes - "What are these things?" -

- "They were at your side when we found you" – Miroku gently told her.

- "And where did this shard of the Shikon Pearl come from?" – Miko asked while she took in her hands and flashed the small pink crystal shard she had in a flask tied to her neck. The very same final shard they were so focused in protecting from Naraku.

- "You know about the Pearl and about the fact that it was shattered?" – Kaede asked her in amazement.

- "Yeah, I know about that jewel that can grant wishes to the humans and give power to the youkai" – she answered slightly confused, thinking how strange it was that they asked her about it. And then...

- "By the way, who's that boy over there? He looks very strange" – Miko asked; and when the others looked at the place where she was pointing to, they noticed she was talking about Inuyasha.

- "Eh, well… He's..." – Sango said while trying to come up with something, and luckily for her, Inuyasha woke up that precise instant with the same reaction Miko had.

- "Where I'm, and who are you guys? The last thing I remember doing was running away from some youkai… "– he said in a scared voice shortly after he awakened.

- "Do you know who you are?" – Kaede asked him.

- "Yeah, I'm Inuyasha..." – he replied in a very faint voice to then ask anguished - "You aren't gonna harm me or drive me away from your village?" -

- "So you know who you are, but you don't know us" – Sango said thoughtfully, but upon realizing how scared the boy looked, she gave a gentle glance to him – "Don't worry, we won't harm you" -

- "That's correct. We found you and that girl over there unconscious in the road to this village, and we decided to bring you both here" – Miroku said as gestured towards Miko.

- "Then, you don't mind that I'm a hanyou?" – Inuyasha asked, still anguished.

- "No, of course not" – Sango replied as she smiled – "What's important to us is that you're fine and safe" -

- "Okay... sorry for asking… it's just that no human had ever treated me like this..." – Inuyasha said a little more calmed, but then he noticed the rosary he had around his neck.

- "By the way... what's this thing?" – he asked as he looked with suspicion at the rosary while he pulled it a little to show it to the others.

- "Don't worry about it, it's just an ornament" – Kaede said trying to make him forget about it. She didn't have the heart to tell him it was a tool to control his behavior.

- "And what's this sword I have here?" – he asked as he looked at the Tessaiga's scabbard, which he had in the futon right beside him.

- "It's a gift left to you by your father. It's called Tessaiga, and eventually you'll know how to use it correctly" – Kaede replied as she smiled.

These swords seemed to have quite an effect on Inuyasha, as he suddenly got very enthusiastic.

- "My father!?" – he screamed while he took the sword out of its scabbard, but upon seeing how the sword was while not in use, he felt greatly disappointed - "Come on! This is just a rusty old sword!" -

- "But use it when you need to protect someone and you will get a very pleasant surprise" – Kaede told him in a manner that suggested him to be patient.

- "Ah, ok then!" – Inuyasha replied while he stood up and left the sheathed sword beside Miko's backpack. However, when he went back to his futon to sit down again, his gaze crossed with Miko's, making them both blush.

- 'That girl feels familiar, but… what's this sensation?' – Inuyasha thought nervously.

- 'I feel I know that boy, but he doesn't seem to know me… why I'm feeling like this?' – Miko thought, confused and the same time thrilled.

They stayed like this for a couple of seconds, until they both broke visual contact and were left looking at the wooden floor. After a few seconds, Miko raised her face.

- "Ehm… Could you tell us your names, please?" – she asked the others in an attempt to get out a topic.

- "Well, I'm called Miroku, but you can call me Houshi-sama" – Miroku said while putting on an air of importance.

- "What do you think you're doing, Houshi-sama?" – an enraged Sango whispered to him.

- "I just want to receive a little more respect around here, Sango" – Miroku answered in whispers.

- "And I'm Shippou, the great kitsune" – Shippou said while puffing his chest out, displaying his eternal lack of modesty.

- "Aw, you're so cute!" – Miko said as she ran over to hug him.

- 'Aaahh... I don't want this to end...' – Shippou thought joyfully while Miko held him.

- 'I'm gonna kill that fox! Wait a sec, why I'm feeling jealous now?'- Inuyasha thought enraged, but at the same time, weirded out by these feelings.

- "Cough, cough!" – Sango loudly coughed, making everyone to turn to see her - "And I'm Sango, last surviving member of the youkai slayer clan" -

That last part of her statement scared the wits out of Inuyasha, as he didn't like in the slightest the idea of having a youkai slayer around him. He ran and got himself hidden behind Miko's things in the rear of the hut.

- "A youkai slayer!?" -

- "Calm down, I've already said we wouldn't harm you" – Sango gently told him trying to tranquilize him.

- "Hmmm... And what do you do?" – Miko asked, very interested in learning how such a colorful and eclectic group got and traveled together.

- "Well, we go around the land gathering the shards of the Shikon Pearl, and during our journeys, we found you two" – Miroku replied.

- "Ah, okay... And there's nothing between you two?" – Miko asked with a smile as she gestured to Sango and Miroku, making them blush violently.

- "No, of course not!" – an embarrassed Miroku said.

- "No, we're just friends!" – Sango said every bit as embarrassed as the monk.

- "Cough! Cough!" - interrupted Kaede: she had just gotten an idea that moment - "I think that's enough talking for now" –

She then looked at Miko and Inuyasha, and told them:

- "If you want, you can go out and play, as later you both will begin taking some lessons, understood?" -

- "Yeah!" – both children replied in unison.

- "What kind of training'll it be?" – Inuyasha asked while he looked at Miko with a smile.

- "You'll know soon" – a smiling Kaede replied.

- "What do you want to play?" – Miko asked Inuyasha.

- "Let's play hide-and-seek!" – Inuyasha replied.

- "Let's go!" – Miko said; and both ran off out of the hut. Unfortunately, Kaede didn't have any footwear that would fit Miko's new size, so she would have to go barefoot for the time being.

- "We'll have to leave them like this for now. Anyway, Kagome now looks like a normal girl of this time" – Sango said after a short while of silence.

- "Yes, I agree, but we can't expect to leave them this way forever. We'll have to find first a way to restore their memories… and about that" – Miroku said – "Why Kagome's memories were completely wiped away while Inuyasha still retained part of them?" -

- "It must be because hanyou don't suffer as badly as humans when it comes to the memory erasing effects of the water" - Kaede shrugged as she replied.

- "Still, I'm very surprised at how much Inuyasha's personality changed… I couldn't have imagined that he was like this as a child…" – Sango said thoughtfully.

- "Yes, it's true..." – Kaede added, but she couldn't add anything because Shippou cut her off.

- "Cough, cough!" -

- "Is anything the matter, Shippou?" – Miroku gently asked him.

- "No, it's just that I wanted to tell you that I'll go and play with them" – Shippou replied as he stood up.

- "Okay. And remember that you have to call Kagome 'Miko' now!" – Sango told him as he got out of the hut.

- "I know, I know!" – and he ran off filled with joy.

- "As for me, I'll have to teach Miko again how to use her powers, to wield the bow and arrow, and how to recognize and use the medicinal herbs. However, we'll still need someone that can train Inuyasha" – Kaede pointed out when she noticed that there was no one around that could take care of that task.

- "Leave that to me!" – said a voice that apparently came from nowhere, which spooked everyone.

The voice's owner was known right away, as a small flea jumped out from Kirara's fur and landed in Miroku's face to begin sucking his blood. Miroku then splatted him with his hand. The flea then comically turned into a flat and wavering creature to regain his natural form in a few seconds.

- "Elder Myouga, what are you doing here?" – Sango asked.

- "Well, I learned that you would continue your travels, and decided to hide in Kirara to watch how things were going" – Myouga calmly replied from Miroku's hand - "As I was saying, I could bring here Totosai so he takes care of training Inuyasha-sama, as I'm already aware of what happened to him and Kagome" -

- "Are you sure of being able to do this?" – Miroku asked him with the distrust overflowing from his voice and face: Myouga was pretty known for not being trustworthy during dangerous situations, and these feelings of suspicion everyone had for the flea had only intensified given Inuyasha's new condition as a defenseless child.

- "Of course I can, by tomorrow he'll be here training the Master" – Myouga replied in fury upon seeing how no one trusted him.

He then jumped into Kirara.

- "I'll be back tomorrow!" - Myouga said after Kirara transformed. They then left the hut and a few seconds later, they heard the sounds indicating that Kirara began flying off: a soft roar followed by the sounds of her paws stopping completely.

- "Very well, tomorrow I'll begin teaching Miko then. However, we must be careful about which places they wander to, especially the Bone Eater's Well and the Goshinboku" – said Kaede in a tone of warning – "If they got close to either place, it would be terrible, as the Well would send them to Miko's time, making us lose them forever, and the Goshinboku most likely would drive them to madness due to the many important memories it holds for them. In fact, it would be safer if we don't allow them to even leave the village" -

- "Anyway, Miko only seems to be able to remember things from this era" – Miroku shrugged.

- "Yes, as otherwise she wouldn't be aware of the Pearl's existence or of the powers it holds" – Kaede sternly said.

- "And we should also watch Shippou, as with that bad habit he has of falling in love with the girls of every village we've visited, he could end up causing a disaster" – an annoyed Sango said. She then gave a killer gaze to Miroku, as he was undoubtedly the cause of Shippou acquiring that habit.

Miroku just closed his eyes, set his hand on his chin, and as if the matter didn't actually concern him, he said:

- "Ah, so that's why he was so happy when we left. Okay then, I'll take care of Shippou" – he then turned to look at Sango - "Sango, could you go and watch Miko and Inuyasha?" -

- "Of course, Houshi-sama. I think it'd be a good idea that we used for this the contraptions for viewing and listening from afar that Kago... I mean, Miko, brought us" – Sango said. Miroku nodded, so they took the binoculars and the antenna, and left the hut.

After they left, Kaede just sighed and said:

- "This is going to be both tiring and strange..." -

(End of Chapter)

(Ending: My Will)


	2. Rebirth of a Love

Chapter 2:

Rebirth of a Love

(Opening: I Am)

The following day, both Miko and Inuyasha had quite a hectic day. Miko spent it learning to recognize and mix medicinal herbs, meditating (and falling asleep during it) and practicing archery, while Inuyasha had several kinds of exercises and fencing lessons, although he couldn't transform Tessaiga into its true shape yet. Once night came, they could only go to sleep until the next day, in which they would resume their respective trainings. The next morning, both were having training with their weapons again…

- "Go!" – Miko screamed as she shot an arrow, but the arrow ended falling down in front of the target she was using to practice. They were in a small plain outside the village and near a forest.

- "Not again!" – she said very disappointed.

- "You have to learn how to grasp and aim your arrows better" – Kaede sighed upon seeing how hard it was for the girl to understand the basics of archery – "Honestly speaking, I wouldn't mind it so much if at least you could make a Purifying Arrow…" -

- "Ok, I'll try it again" – Miko said as she readied other arrow. When she released the string, the arrow covered itself in a shining blue aura, making Miko fall to the ground from the impression and miss the target again.

- "Kaede-obaasan, did you see what I did?" – Miko asked excitedly.

- "Yes, I see you're improving very quickly" – Kaede congratulated her as she helped Miko to stand up again – "Continue like this, and I guarantee you will have it mastered very soon" -

- "Yes, thanks!" – she said as she made a short bow before Kaede. Then, she turned to face the target and readied other arrow – "I'll try one last time" –

She shot other arrow, and to her surprise, it didn't only cover itself on a blue aura, but it also struck the exact center of the target.

- "Yeah! At last I did it!" – Miko screamed as she jumped up and down in happiness.

- "Splendid, child! Splendid!" – Kaede told her smiling as she put her right hand on the child's shoulder – "We've finished for today, so you can go play now" –

- "Yes! Thank you!" – Miko bowed before her and ran off back to the village.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was training with Totosai inside the forest. Totosai was an old man dressed in a ragged green kosode and hakama with black markings, was almost entirely bald save for a tied up bun of white hair, had pointed ears, white beard and whiskers and large black eyes.

- "Remember, Tessaiga will only transform if it feels that you want to use it to protect someone else" – Totosai told Inuyasha while the small hanyou swung the sword fiercely, but without getting any results.

- "I'm trying to concentrate in that idea, but I can't do it!" – he replied in frustration.

- "Foolish boy. Just try swinging the sword once more, and let's see what you do" – Totosai said in a tired voice.

- "Ok, here it goes" – and he then swung the sword, which changed into its true shape.

- "At last I did it!" – Inuyasha said filled with happiness, but the sword returned to its battered stated an instant later.

- "Argh!" – he roared as he swung the sword enraged. This time, it did transform and stuck on its true shape.

- "I did it!" – Inuyasha said to then begin jumping joyfully. He then began looking at the magnificent sword he had in his hand.

- "Whoa! I didn't expect it to be so large and so light too!" – he said while he held the sword aloft to examine it carefully.

- 'What strength! Even as a kid, he can hold the sword in its true form without any problem!' – Totosai thought scared. He then went to Inuyasha with a smile on his face:

- "Heh, well done, but don't think we're finished yet. Now, it's time to practice the Kaze no Kizu" -

- "And how I do it?" – Inuyasha asked in amazement.

- "Do you see the blue waves around the sword's blade?" – Totosai asked for the boy to take notice of them - "Just put your energy into the sword while concentrating on them and swing it" -

- "Okay..." – Inuyasha said as he closed his eyes and concentrated into his sword.

- "Kaze no Kizu!" – he screamed as he swung the sword hard downwards. From the point where the blade made contact with the ground, it generated three golden waves of energy which then scattered and destroyed the trees they were using for practice.

- "I can't believe it! I did it!" – Inuyasha exclaimed in surprise.

- "Excellent! I see you've got a natural talent for this! Now go to rest. We'll continue with this tomorrow" – Totosai told him.

- Yeah!" – Inuyasha said as he bowed before Totosai to then run off to the village.

He and Miko had agreed to meet up in front of the river that crossed the entire village and under a tree beside it once their respective trainings had finished for the day. By now, they had already turned into great friends again, and it could be even said that they were getting along better than how they used to be.

- "How did the sword training go?" – Miko asked him after they met up and sat down under the tree.

- "Great! At last I could do the Kaze no Kizu and transform Tessaiga into its true form!" – Inuyasha excitedly told her.

- "Wow! Congratulations! You've made a lot of progress in the two days we've been training!" – Miko told him.

- "Thanks!" – Inuyasha said irradiating a lot of happiness – "And how did the classes with Kaede-sama go?" -

- "We had archery practice, and I didn't just manage to hit a target with an arrow… I even managed to make a Purifying Arrow!"- Miko told him very happy, but she then began coughing.

- "Cool!" – Inuyasha said smiling, but then his smile turned into a concerned face when he saw Miko coughing – "By the way, are you all right? You look a little pale"

- "Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just a little tired" – Miko told him smiling, but she began coughing again.

- "You should go and rest for a bit then" – Inuyasha suggested a little worried – "And besides, that coughing doesn't look like something good" –

- "Yeah, thanks. Don't worry" – Miko told him as she stood up and began walking to Kaede's hut. Inuyasha followed her with his eyes.

Meanwhile, Miroku and Sango were watching the scene from behind a nearby bush.

- "Hmm, they lost their memories, but they still haven't forgotten their feelings for each other" – Miroku said amazed.

- "It's incredible the way the heart can store the most precious feelings of a person in that way" – Sango said impressed.

- "Yes, Sango..." – Miroku said in a deep tone, but he just did this in a failed attempt to hide the fact that he was purposely putting his hand where he shouldn't.

- "Kyaah! How do you dare…!?" – Sango screamed as she gave the perverted monk a good slap on the face.

- "I'm sorry, Sango" – he said in all seriousness. However, he added thoughtfully - "Miko didn't seem a little strange?" -

That seemed to calm down Sango, as she began worrying about if Miko was okay.

- "Now you say it, you're right. Inuyasha noticed something weird about her too" – she said as she looked at the ground for a moment. She then faced Miroku again – "Shall we go and check on her?" -

- "Yes, we should" – he answered as they began making their way to the hut.

But when they went to see Miko, they found her lying in her futon, breathing with great difficulty, and additionally…

- "What a high fever!" – Sango said after she put a hand on Miko's forehead. She then took a cloth soaked in cold water and put it on the younger girl's forehead - "Why didn't you tell anyone?" -

- "I'm sorry… I didn't want to worry you, Houshi-sama, Sango-nee…" – Miko apologized with a very sad voice as her eyes began filling with tears. Both she and Inuyasha had gotten used to calling Sango that way because of the way in which she always looked out for them, even if they weren't related by blood.

- "Don't mind it… but make sure to tell us whenever you don't feel well, okay?" – Sango said so Miko wouldn't worry about it, and softly caressed the girl's face, which made her smile again with relief despite feeling so badly. Sango wiped off the tears from her eyes, and then went to where Kaede stored her herbs and began rummaging through them, trying to find a way to help her. However, this only finished with her sighing in disappointment – "Looks like we don't have any medicinal herbs that can help us much now…" -

- "Too bad we can't… you know, Sango" – Miroku said in a mysterious way.

- "What are you talking about?" – Miko asked, but she then began coughing.

Sango understood that Miroku meant sending Miko back to her era.

- "About nothing in particular..." – an annoyed Sango said as she threw an angry glance at Miroku. She then turned back to see Miko, sighed and began checking the medicines that were inside the backpack, but this only had the same results as when she checked the herbs – "I don't think any of these medicines will be of help right now. There's none for curing a cold" -

And as she said this, Inuyasha ran into the hut visibly alarmed.

- "Inuyasha!" - Miroku and Sango said surprised.

- "Where's... where's Miko?" – he asked gasping for breath.

- "She's here. Looks like she caught a cold" – Miroku told him in a grave manner.

- "Fool! Why didn't you tell me anything?" – Inuyasha said enraged when he saw the bad shape in which Miko was.

- "I'm sorry… you looked so happy… that I didn't want to spoil it…" - she said saddened to then begin coughing again.

Inuyasha just sighed. He tried to calm down a little to not upset Miko any further, and saddened, he said:

- "Don't mind it. I know how to make a medicine for this thanks to my mother, but I don't think I can get the ingredients. I wouldn't be a match for the youkai that live where they can be found all by myself" -

- "Sango should go with you. As she is a slayer, she could be of help" – Miroku said as he put a know-it-all face.

- "Maybe, Houshi-sama; but it'd be better if you went with Inuyasha instead" – Sango growled as she gave him a horrible face.

- "Hurry up! I need to get them fast, or Miko could get worse!" – Inuyasha said in desperation as he looked how Miko was lying in the futon.

- "Okay, I'll go with you!" – Miroku said with disappointment - "Sango, please take care of Miko and Shippou!" -

- "Understood!" – Sango said as she watched them running out of the hut.

- "Inuyasha…" – Miko said amazed, but she then put on a small smile when she saw how much they cared for her. She coughed a little again and turned to the side to try and sleep for a while. Sango stood at her side watching over her, and ready to change the cloth when the water on it had gotten warmer.

On the other hand, Shippou was hidden behind a window and from there; he had been watching everything that had happened inside the hut.

- 'Perfect! Now these two are gone, it's my chance to win Kagome's heart!' – he thought as he jumped down to the ground.

Meanwhile…

Inuyasha and Miroku were fighting against all sorts of different youkai, in several places, as they sought the ingredients they needed to make the medicine for Miko. They had to through a beach, a lake deep in the mountains, among other places, and they rode Kirara to do this so it would take them the less time possible. Inuyasha was very impressed by the way Miroku fought, but he also tried to make himself useful with his Sankontessou claw attack and the Tessaiga, even if he couldn't remember well how to fight. He decided to not use the Kaze no Kizu because that would have obliterated the youkai viscera he needed.

On the other hand, in the village…

Shippou had spent the afternoon picking up flowers from the plains and forests nearby and using them to make a flower crown for Miko, and he was now in route to giving it to her…

- "I hope she likes this gift" – Shippou told himself with a smile as he took out a crown made of white and pink flowers from the inner pockets of his kosode and went inside Kaede's hut.

- "How's Miko?" – he asked cheerfully while also trying to keep up appearances on being worried about her.

- "She's resting right now. The fever has gone down a little, but don't wake her up until Inuyasha and Houshi-sama have returned, okay?" – Sango told him gently while she showed him how Miko was sleeping despite the difficulties she was having breathing. However, her worried face turned into one of suspicion when she saw the flower crown Shippou had in his hands - "And what do you have there?"

- "What?" – he noticed what Sango was looking at and put the crown behind himself - "Uh! Nothing, nothing!" -

- "Hmmm... Well, then go play. Miko needs rest now to get better" – a suddenly severe Sango told him.

- "Y-y-yes, S-Sango" – he said scared. He turned around as if he were to go outside, but he couldn't do more than clenching his teeth and rolling his small hands into fists to then think in irritation - 'Shucks, I couldn't do anything!' -

That precise instant, Inuyasha and Miroku ran into the hut and trampled him. Shippou ended up dizzy near one of the walls.

- "We're back! We've gotta boil these things!" – Inuyasha said as he showed Sango the ingredients for the medicine: he had returned carrying back all sorts of youkai viscera in bags, as well as some crabs and fishes.

- "Okay, okay! Calm down!" – Sango said surprised.

They dedicated themselves to the task of cutting down the ingredients for the medicine in pieces and putting them to boil during a while. Finally, they put the resulting brew in a deep bowl. So when it was ready, Sango looked at Inuyasha with a smile and gave to him the bowl with the medicine:

- "Now go and wake her up to make her drink it" –

- "O-okay… I'll go…" – Inuyasha said as he blushed. Miko seemed to have felt this, as she began moving and slightly opened her eyes when he got closer.

- "Miko, are you awake?" – Inuyasha asked her gently when he saw this.

- "Yeah..." – she replied with a voice that revealed how badly she was feeling.

- "That's good. Well then, drink this" – Inuyasha told her as he handed to her the bowl with the brew. Miko accepted it and sat up in the futon to be able to drink it.

- "What's it?" – she asked Inuyasha with a disconcerted face, and she smelled it - "Ugh, it smells awful!" -

- "The worse it smells and tastes, the more effective it is! Just gulp it all down and by tomorrow you'll be like new!" – Inuyasha guaranteed her with a smile.

- "Okay. If it's as good as you say, then I'll try to stand the bad taste" – she said as she smiled back at Inuyasha, and after plugging her nostrils, she drank the entirety of the bowl. As soon as she finished, she put on a face of repugnance.

- "Yuck! It tastes horrible!" –

Inuyasha just smiled when he saw her face, and put one of his hands on one of Miko's shoulders while with the other he took the bowl from her hands and put it on the wooden floor.

- "Well, you better go back to sleep, as that should be enough for you to be cured" – Inuyasha said to her in a supporting way, and he then turned around to Sango - "Sango-nee, are you going to take care of Miko tonight?" -

Sango had an idea that instant and gently smiled at Inuyasha:

- "Why don't you try taking care of her this time, Inuyasha?" -

Inuyasha blushed and began thinking about it. Then, he told Sango as he looked at the floor with some embarrassment…

- "Well... I don't think it'd be a bad idea" -

- "Okay, then you'll be in charge of taking care of Miko, understood?" – Sango told him.

- "Yeah" – Inuyasha answered.

After they ate dinner and went to sleep, Inuyasha awakened every now and then to check up that Miko was fine. In one of these times…

- "Inuyasha, are you awake?" – Miko asked him cautiously as she sat up on the futon.

- "Yeah, I couldn't sleep," – Inuyasha replied to her, trying to reassure her that nothing was happening - "why the question?" -

- "It's just that..." – Miko blushed and joined her hands at about the height of her knees - "I wanted to thank you for wanting to take care of me" -

- "Don't worry about that! Just be at ease so you can get better!" – Inuyasha told her as he blushed too.

- "Yes. I wish that we can go outside and play together again tomorrow" – Miko said, and then they both went back to sleep.

The next morning, Inuyasha was the first one in waking up. He noticed the others had already gone out and thus, he sat down beside Miko's futon to watch over her. He was still worried, although she was now breathing normally and had a smile in her face: she seemed to be having a very pleasant dream. After a while, she awakened…

- "Ah, I feel so good!" – she said as she stood up and stretched – "Thanks, Inuyasha! Your medicine is really effective!"

- "Yep, my mother taught me how to make it" – Inuyasha replied as he smiled.

- "She must be a great person" – Miko commented as she sat down beside him. However, this only made Inuyasha's face to get gloomy…

- "She was..." -

- "What… do you mean?" – Miko asked very disconcerted, but having a hunch about what had happened.

- "She died several years ago..." – Inuyasha replied, his face showing he wanted to cry, but he was trying to bear it.

- "Huh?" – Miko got all scared, her eyes began filling with tears, and then she prostrated herself before him to apologize. That was the very last thing she wanted to happen – "Please, forgive me! I didn't mean to make you feel like this!" -

- "Don't worry... It was long ago, after all..." – Inuyasha said with a very faint voice as he looked at the floor.

Miko fell silent beside him for a while, trying to think up of something to do, and finally she asked:

- "Eh... ummm... don't you want to go out and play?" -

- "Yeah!" – Inuyasha replied all cheered up again, and they both ran outside.

Once outside, they met up with Shippou under the same tree below which they both had sat down the previous day.

- "Hi, Shippou!" – Miko cheerfully greeted him.

- "Miko... I'd like to give you this..." – Shippou shyly told her as he gave to Miko the flower crown.

Miko's face lit up when she saw the crown, and she took it from Shippou's hands with trembling fingers.

- "How pretty! Thanks, Shippou!" – she said as she put the crown on her head.

- "It looks great on you!" – Shippou told her.

- "Thanks!" – Miko told him with a big smile. However, this also made Inuyasha's jealousy explode…

- "Hey fox; don't dare to try anything funny with Miko! – he screamed at Shippou in rage.

And to make things worse, this in exchange caused the hatred that Shippou had for Inuyasha due to the latter always hitting him to flood out…

- "You're no one to say that to a true youkai, stupid and insignifcant hanyou!" – Shippou screamed at him.

This left Miko and Inuyasha shocked. However, it undoubtedly was a low blow to Inuyasha, who put a weird face, as in the middle of both sadness and rage, and he then ran off. Shippou smiled satisfied at his handiwork, but he would end up paying a high price for it…

- "Inuyasha!" – Miko screamed while trying to stop him in vain, and then she turned enraged towards Shippou - "How could you say these things to him!?" -

- "I... umm... I..." – Shippou muttered, as he couldn't even speak due to how scared he was.

Miko was so furious that if the cause was Inuyasha and they were their normal selves, most likely she would have said "Sit down" at him until she was out of breath.

- "Shut up! I won't listen to your excuses, and I never want to see you ever again!" – she screamed at Shippou as she took off the flower crown and threw it at him. She then ran off after Inuyasha - "Inuyasha, wait!" -

She left a saddened and impressed Shippou behind.

- "Wha... wha... Waaah!" – he began crying - "I ruined yet other love! First it was Mizuki; and now it was Kagome!" -

He then began hitting himself on the head with both hands as he screamed - "I'm a fool!"-

Then, Miroku's and Sango's hands shot out from a nearby bush and pulled Shippou inside. When Shippou became aware of what was happening, he noticed that Miroku and Sango were looking at him in a very scary way.

- "¿W-w-what are you doing?" – Shippou asked, scared out of his wits.

- "Sorry, Shippou, but we can't have you interfering in our plans" – Sango told him.

- "That's correct, so you better keep away from Kagome and Inuyasha... or else" – Miroku said as he put on a mysterious face.

- "And what are you planning?" – he asked scared.

- "You'll know tonight" – Sango replied in the same mysterious tone as Miroku.

Meanwhile, Miko continued running after Inuyasha, trying to calm him down.

- "Inuyasha, wait for me!" – Miko screamed in desperation.

- "Please... Leave me alone..." – Inuyasha said with a tearful voice.

- "I can't!" – Miko replied, who herself was on the verge of crying too - "Shippo might be an idiot, but we don't think that way of you!" -

Then, Inuyasha crashed into someone, making him fall backwards to the ground due to how fast he was running. The first thing he did was asking:

- "Who hit me?" -

- "Are you okay?" – Miko asked worriedly as she stopped at his side.

- "So you're the new kids, right?" – the person into who Inuyasha had crashed asked: it was a girl a little taller than they both}.

- "Hmm... you are?" – Miko doubtfully asked her.

- "My name is Asagi, and I'm one of the kids from Hourai Island" – the girl introduced herself as she put her hand over her chest.

- "Ah, yeah! Kaede-sama told us about you!" – Miko exclaimed upon remembering how Kaede had commented about this in the training she had two days prior: they were a group of hanyou children that had come from a faraway land to live there, and that they most likely would meet soon.

As for Inuyasha, he had his eyes fixed in Asagi due to her ears:

- "You're also a… a…" – he tried asking, as he seemed to have lost control of his voice.

- "Yeah, I'm a hanyou. All the kids from that place are hanyou, and I didn't think any people would accept us outside of the island" – Asagi replied cheerfully.

- "I heard about that place once… wasn't that where youkai, humans and hanyou could live together in peace?" – Inuyasha pensively asked.

- "That's how it used to be, at least until a group of youkai that called themselves the Shitoushin appeared and killed everyone living there, leaving only the hanyou to use them as sacrifices and extract their energies. My turn was about to come up, but in the last moment, some travelers came, defeated the Shitoushin and saved us. We've been living here since that time" – Asagi narrated with pride.

- "That story sounds very familiar, but I don't know why… I've never heard it before…" – Miko said deep in thought, as if she had forgotten something important.

- "Could you tell me your names, please?" – Asagi gently asked them.

- "Eh, yes, sorry... My name is Miko" – Miko replied a little embarrassed as she bowed before her.

- "I'm Inuyasha" – he said as he bowed too.

When she heard their names, Asagi corroborated that what Kaede had told her about what had happened to Kagome and Inuyasha was true. She already had begun having suspicions on this when she first saw Inuyasha in his current state.

- 'Kaede-sama was right about this... I'll have to be very careful with whatever I say now' – Asagi thought, but she decided to still go ahead with what she had planned to tell them. It was the reason for which she was seeking them in the first place - "Well, the village will be holding a festival tonight, and we're going to sing a traditional song from our island and well… I was wondering if you'd like to sing it with us" -

Both Miko and Inuyasha were so impressed by having something like this offered to them, that they couldn't believe it:

- "What?" -

- "Are you serious?" -

- "Yes! Then, what do you say? Will you do it?" – Asagi asked them again.

- "Of course!" – they both replied with a large smile.

- "By the way, where are the other children?" – Miko asked upon noticing that Asagi was all by herself.

- "They're on their way here right now" – she said cheerfully, and when she saw them coming - "Ah, here they are!" -

The other five children from the island arrived shortly later. They were Ai, Moegi, Roku, Dai, and Shion.

- "Onee-chan!" – Ai screamed when she was close enough to Asagi.

- "Hi, guys," – Asagi greeted them - "is all ready for tonight?" -

- "Yeah, nee-chan" – Roku replied to then take notice of Inuyasha and Miko's presence - "They two are..." -

- "Yeah, they're the new ones: Inuyasha and Miko. They're gonna join us in our song" – Asagi replied while the two aforementioned bowed as they smiled in order to introduce themselves.

- "Pleased to meet you" – both said in unison.

- "Tee hee, it's the same for us… Inuyasha-onii'chan and Ka…" – Ai began with a little laughter, but when she saw how Asagi got all scared behind Miko when Ai began saying the name, she corrected herself at the last second with a bit of nervousness – "…Err, Miko-onee'chan" –

- "Hmm, are you okay, Ai-chan?" – Miko asked a bit worried when she saw Ai's behavior. Asagi just sighed in relief behind her.

- "It's nothing. It's that you remind me of other person" – Ai said blushing as she smiled.

- "She's the youngest of us, so there are times where she gets a little confused" – Moegi explained as she smiled shyly.

- "Well, that's no problem" – Inuyasha said as he patted Ai's head. She simply smiled in satisfaction from this.

- 'Well, at least dog boy won't be able to continue hitting us'- Dai thought when he saw how they were behaving, and then said aloud – "Shouldn't we go and rehearse?"

- "Yeah. They both have to learn the lyrics to the song" – Moegi said in reference to both Miko and Inuyasha.

- "Do you think it'll go well?" – Shion asked a bit scared.

- "Come on, Shion. Don't be such a pessimist" – Asagi put a hand on his shoulder to cheer him up.

- "It's gonna turn fine!" – Ai said cheerfully.

- "Ok, let's go then!" – Miko enthusiastically said. They all began going to the place where they would rehearse, excepting for Inuyasha, so Miko decided to go and see what was happening to him.

- "Are you okay?" – she asked, a bit concerned about him.

- "I've never sung in front of anyone, so..." – Inuyasha replied as he looked at the ground, trembling - "I'm a little scared…" -

- "Don't worry. If you can slay large youkai, you should be able to sing a song too" – Miko said as she held one of Inuyasha's hands.

They got going, and after a little while walking in silence, they arrived at the place where the main attraction of the festival would be held. It was a large stone stage in front of a lake located behind the village.

Miko was very impressed, as she had never seen such a large lake in her life.

- "Wow! What a great lake! It'd be a pleasant place to sit down by!" -

And thanks to that, Inuyasha's rosary shone and made him crash face-first into the ground.

- "Ugh, what was that!?" – he said with fury when he managed to stand up again.

- "Are you okay?" – a concerned Miko asked. She had covered her mouth with her hands due to how much this had scared her.

- "Yeah, but I felt that something in this rosary pulled me to the ground when you said these words" - he replied in a puzzled tone while he pulled a bit of the rosary so Miko could see it.

Miko simply gave him back a puzzled expression.

- "Words? Do you mean…Sit down?" – she said, and this made Inuyasha crash into the ground again as he groaned from the pain.

Miko panicked from this.

- "Aah! I'm sorry! I didn't know that saying that would harm you!" – as she ran to help him stand up again and give him a hug, as she felt very guilty for this.

- "It's okay, don't worry. Just don't say it while I'm around" – Inuyasha said as he hugged her back.

- "Are you two finished playing?" – Asagi asked a bit angry. They both just apologized with a bit of embarrassment.

They then began rehearsing: Asagi, Inuyasha, Miko and Ai were the singers, while the others played instruments. Dai played the flute, Moegi the lyre and both Roku and Shion played a koto and a biwa. Once this attempt ended…

- "We're doing pretty well so far, but... Miko, you have to fully memorize the lyrics; and Inuyasha, you're singing too low. Try to make your voice a little louder so we can hear it better" – Asagi told them in a severe manner.

- "Yeah, okay" – Inuyasha replied, who was still having a little case of stage fright.

- "I'll do everything I can" – Miko said as she struggled to memorize the rest of the lyrics.

They began rehearsing again, and this time, they fared much better. This left Asagi very satisfied with the results.

- "This time we did it pretty well! If we do it like this during the real thing tonight, it'll be perfect!" – she said cheerfully.

- "Sounds wonderful!" – Miko said as she clapped her hands in happiness.

- "That's great!" - Inuyasha said rolling one of his hands into a fist.

- "Onee-chan, we're finished?" - Ai asked Asagi with a smile on her face.

- "Yeah. We can rest until it's time for us to sing" – she replied to her sister as she went to her and caressed her head.

- "I'm so glad!" – Miko said. However, she was assaulted by a sudden thought, and thus she went to Asagi's side - "Umm, Asagi-chan... I want to ask you something…" -

- "What is it, Miko-chan?" – Asagi gently asked.

- "What does this song mean to you? It's very beautiful, but it also sounds very sad… especially because of what the lyrics say…" – Miko asked very worried.

Asagi simply gazed at the sky with a sad smile on her face before answering - "This song is a prayer, and its lyrics are a very ancient poem from our island. It means that our parents sacrificed themselves to become a protective light for us" -

- "I see. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad by asking about it" – Miko said as her face saddened.

- "It's okay" – Asagi gently smiled at her, to show her it was nothing to be worried about – "Anyway, our island doesn't exist anymore, and our parents will continue watching over us wherever we are" -

Inuyasha had been listening on the entire conversation, and decided to do something to cheer them up:

- "Wanna go play? We've got a ball in Kaede-sama's hut" – he said as he smiled

All the others answered - "Yeah!" – so they went to grab the ball and spent the rest of the afternoon playing. However, Miko noticed that Inuyasha seemed a bit uneasy for some reason, but she didn't learn what the reason was until night came…

- "No! I don't wanna go out like this!" – Inuyasha said after it had gotten dark: it was a new moon night, so he had lost his hanyou powers and appearance, and now looked like a typical human boy.

- "What happened to your hair and ears?" – Miko asked amazed. This was the first time she saw Inuyasha in his human form, and like this, he looked like a completely different person. Most likely she wouldn't have recognized him if she hadn't seen the transformation with her own eyes.

- "It's due to being a hanyou. Every now and then, we hanyou lose our powers and turn into normal humans for a while" – Asagi explained in a very serious tone.

- "And what does this to you, Inuyasha?" – Miko asked very interested.

Inuyasha didn't want to reveal it because he believed it was a terrible idea that anyone else knew about his secret, but in the end, he decided to spit it up to show Miko that he trusted her.

- "The... new moon nights…" -

- "And why didn't you tell us!? We could have found a way to leave the festival for tomorrow!" – Miko said enraged because this could end up throwing dirt upon everything they had done in the afternoon.

- "I didn't want to ruin everything you all had done" - Inuyasha said in an apologetic tone.

- "That doesn't matter now! We'll lose our chance to sing if we don't go out now!" – Asagi exclaimed in fear.

- "There's no helping it… I'll have to go out like this..." – Inuyasha said as he stood up both embarrassed and annoyed.

Meanwhile, Miroku and Sango were conversing amidst the festival the village was celebrating in order to pray for good crops.

- "Do you think they'll do well?" – a doubtful Sango asked.

- "Well, I heard them rehearsing, and they sounded pretty well" – Miroku said with a smile.

- "Then, our plan may be successful?" – Sango asked in excitement.

- "I think so. But first, let's go to listen to them, and then we'll see what happens" – Miroku said; and they both began walking to the place where the stage was located. The entire village was gathered in that place already, and there, they met up with Shippou.

- "Ah, I was getting sick of waiting! We can't all enjoy this if we aren't together!" – the kitsune said cheerfully.

- "Did you think that we would miss out on Kagome and Inuyasha's stellar presentation?" – Miroku asked as he laughed.

- "That means this was your great plan?" – a suspicion-filled Shippou asked.

- "Of course not, it was just a part of that plan" – Sango said mysteriously.

- "What!? You mean there's more!?" - Shippou said scared.

- "Yes, just wait and see" – Miroku said with a voice that implied he would learn about it soon enough.

- "Be quiet! They're about to begin!" – Sango said, but her eyes became wider when she saw Inuyasha – "And look! Inuyasha is on his human form!" -

- "It's true!" – Shippou exclaimed with the eyes and mouth left gaping wide.

- "It's because tonight it's new moon" – Miroku said as he gazed up at the dark sky: there was no moon on sight, although it was covered in shining stars - "I'm surprised that he wanted to go out in public like this" -

- "Be quiet!" - Shippou and Sango said, as now the children had begun playing the instruments. Then, Inuyasha, Miko, Asagi and Ai began singing.

(Song: Tamaokuri no Uta – Fumiko Orikasa)

_My father said that the hand of a demon existed to protect me;_

_My mother said that the hand of a human existed to raise me;_

_Join the hands to open the door, so we entrust ourselves to the flames;_

_And thus we'll become a light that will bestow protection over our children…_

When they finished singing and the instruments stopped playing, the crowd gave them a large applause.

- "Thanks!" – Asagi said to the crowd as she and the others bowed before them. Then, she turned to Miko and Inuyasha - "We'll be giving an encore now, but… do you mind going to that shore of the lake and just stay listening over there?" –

She said this as she pointed to a shore located at the left of the stage.

- "No, we don't mind, but... Why?" – a puzzled Miko asked.

- "You've done enough already. I'd rather have you two listening now, okay?" – Asagi told them with a smile.

- "Okay" – Inuyasha replied as he shrugged, while Miko just nodded.

Both walked down the steps of the stage to the ground and went to sit down in the place that Asagi had pointed them to.

- "Now, Sango!" – Miroku said when he saw both children going to the lake shore.

- "Yes!" – Sango said while she brought out the binoculars and listening device that Miko had brought with her, and then they hid themselves where no one could find them to watch and hear Miko and Inuyasha. Shippou jumped into Sango's shoulder to know what was happening.

- "What do you think? Isn't that song beautiful?" – Miko gently asked.

- "Yeah... and it reminds me a lot of my mother" – a melancholic Inuyasha replied to her.

- "It's because of these children being like you, and what the lyric say?" – Miko asked with a lot of interest.

- "Yeah... Where it said "_And thus we'll become a light that will bestow protection over our children…"_" – Inuyasha said as he gazed up at the sky.

- "I see..." – Miko said as she looked at the ground with a bit of sadness. That same moment, the others finished singing and playing, making it obvious that their part of the festival had ended - "It's a shame that it didn't last longer" -

- "Yeah..." – Inuyasha said. Miko then looked upwards, and greatly cheered due to what she saw…

- "Look! Tonight's sky it's very beautiful!" – she said as she stood up and pointed to the sky – "It's all filled with stars! Do you want to see them with me?" –

Inuyasha had no problems with this, so they both lied down on the grass beside each other, and began gazing at the stars. The sky was practically covered with stars, and the shadow of the Milky Way could be seen perfectly behind them.

- "How pretty... I didn't feel so good since long ago" – Inuyasha said in a very pleased tone.

- "Do you mean that doing this while I'm around makes you feel good? It makes me very happy... to know that" – Miko said as she blushed.

- "It makes me happy to know it too" – Inuyasha said as he looked away from Miko. She then leaned on his shoulder, making him blush.

- "Do you want us to make a promise?" – Miko softly asked him.

- "What kind… of promise?" – Inuyasha asked back, very embarrassed and amazed.

- "That no matter what happens from now on… even if I get my memories back… I want us to never part ways with each other for as long as we live..." – Miko explained as she looked at the ground with a shy smile - "Then… do you promise?" -

Inuyasha's face had already gotten so red that he looked like an insulated tomato, and when he saw Miko's face, he noticed that he wouldn't be able to say no to her. And anyway, he had already planned to tell her something along these lines: that he would protect her from now on, no matter what the future might have in store for them.

- "Well... Yeah, I do... I promise. And I also promise to… protect you forever…" – he said as he looked straight on Miko's eyes.

- "Thank you" – Miko said with a large smile as she blushed and closed her eyes. They then separated a bit and continued watching the stars, lying at the side of the other, although they joined their hands after they made the promise.

Meanwhile, Sango and Miroku were celebrating in the place in which they were hidden.

- "We did it! They made a promise!" – Sango said as she jumped in ecstasy.

- "Our plan was a success! Now we're even with them!" – Miroku said as he raised a fist in the air as if he had won a fight or something.

- "So this was your so-brilliant plan? Getting them together again?" - Shippou said with arms crossed. He had an annoyed attitude that would have reminded anyone of Inuyasha's behavior at his normal age.

- "Yes, that's it, Shippou" – Miroku said in a tranquil tone.

- 'They're fools' – Shippou thought, but then he noticed something that had escaped from Sango and Miroku's attention - "Huh!? Look! You're gonna miss out something!" -

At that instant, they noticed that Miko and Inuyasha stood up and they were getting closer and closer to each other. As there was just a pair of binoculars, Sango and Miroku began fighting over who would be the one that would see the resulting scene, so Shippou used his trick of transforming into objects to turn into a second pair of binoculars which Sango took and used. Then, they all held their breath in when they saw what happened next: from the image reflected on the clear surface of the lake, they saw that Inuyasha and Miko kissed each other, their faces covered by the sleeves of Inuyasha's haori, in a very similar fashion to what Kikyou and Inuyasha had done many years prior…

The next morning, they had quite a hectic awakening, but it came accompanied by a very nice surprise…

- "Come! It's time to wake up!" – Miroku energetically told them.

- "Uh... What happened?" – Miko drowsily asked.

- "We've found a way to restore your memories!" – Sango cheerfully announced.

Upon hearing that, Miko fully awakened and was greatly cheered:

- "Really!?" – she said as she rose from her futon.

- "Yes! A traveler told us a rumor about a cave in the mountains east of the village, in which two medallions that have the power of restoring lost memories could be found! Want to come with us to search for them?" – Sango enthusiastically asked them.

- "Yeah! Let's go!" – both replied.

They then began with the preparations. Inuyasha had Tessaiga sheathed and tied to his hip, while Miko carried a small bow and quiver filled with arrows on her back. Noticing how her small body wouldn't be able to carry such a large weight, Sango decided to carry Miko's backpack in her stead. Before departing, they went to say good-bye to both Totosai and Kaede.

- "Sorry I can't train you further, Miko, but with the skills you've developed so far, it should be enough for you to defend yourself" – Kaede said as she smiled in order to cheer her up.

- "As for you, Inuyasha, no monster should be able to match you as long as you handle the power of the Kaze no Kizu" – Totosai said in all seriousness.

- "Now, go on, and I wish you good luck. I hope that you'll have regained your memories by when we meet again" - Kaede told Miko.

- "Yes! Thank you, Kaede-sama!" – Miko cheerfully said as she bowed before her.

- "Thanks, Totosai-sensei!" – Inuyasha thanked him as he bowed.

- "Yeah, yeah, now take care" – Totosai said, but then he sorrowfully thought - 'How sad this treatment he's giving me will go away when his memories come back" -

- "Come back soon!" – Ai joyfully told them.

- "Take care!" – Asagi said to give them support.

- "I hope no youkai eats you up!" – Dai said in a mocking way.

- "Yeah! – Roku sent them off in the same way as his twin.

- "I hope you accomplish your goal!" – Moegi wished them with a smile.

- "Do your best!" – Shion said cheerfully.

- "Thank you! See you later!" – Miko said good-bye to them smiling, very grateful for all the support they were giving them.

- "Well then, no matter the dangers or obstacles we might find on our way, it's time to set out in search of these medallions!" – Miroku said cheerfully when they set out.

- 'But I don't like the idea in the slightest. Kagome won't want to play with me anymore, and Inuyasha's going to hit me again' – a displeased Shippou thought.

And thus, they departed on a new journey, seeking a way to restore Miko's and Inuyasha's memories.

(End of Chapter)

(Ending: Fukai Mori)


	3. The Medallions of Memory

Chapter 3:

The Medallions of Memory

(Opening: Owaranai Yume)

The group set off early at morning, and it was nearing noon when they began walking through a rocky plain while they had a very lively conversation about the events that took place the previous day.

- "That was a great performance" – said Miroku with an ample smile.

- "Yeah, we never heard you singing, and you actually do it very well" – sincerely said Sango, making both Miko and Inuyasha blush.

- "Ehh... thank you. I never thought I'd do it well" – said Miko smiling.

- "And you can't guess how scared I was about it!" – said Inuyasha as he began laughing.

- "So you were scared…" – said Shippo in a mocking tone, but he immediately shut up when he saw the furious glare Miko was giving him. Obviously, she was still angry about what he did to Inuyasha.

- "Shippou… I think you owe Inuyasha an apology" – she reproached him. Shippou initially wanted to refuse doing it, but upon seeing how Miko was glaring at him, he ended up swallowing his pride and decided to apologize.

- "Fine" – he said in an irritated tone and turned to face Inuyasha – "I'msorryaboutwhatIsaidyesterday" –

Inuyasha didn't understand anything he said.

- "What was all that?" – he asked confused.

- "Urgh... I said sorry about what I said yesterday!" – screamed Shippou.

At first it seemed that Inuyasha was going to hit him due to the face of surprise and rage he put on, but he simply went up to Shippou, put one hand on his head softly and he said as he smiled with closed eyes:

- "Okay, I forgive you" –

- '*sigh* That was close...' – thought Shippou relieved as he fell bottom first to the ground.

- "Well, stop playing now. We have to focus on finding these medallions" – Sango scolded them upon seeing how they were falling behind.

After other while walking, during which the children had begun talking among themselves very cheerfully...

- "Look, there's a village over there!" – said Shippou suddenly cutting the conversation about the games they had played up to that moment.

- "It's true!" – said Miko excitedly, as she didn't remember ever having seen other village aside of Kaede's.

- "Do you think we should stop and rest for a while?" – asked Miroku as he sized up their current conditions. Miko, Shippou, and Inuyasha seemed a bit tired, but they also seemed very excited to continue traveling. However, at that instant, the sound of several stomachs growling began being heard.

- "Yeah. I don't think we should go on without replenishing our energies for a bit" – replied Sango as she laughed upon hearing this.

And thus they continued their walking.

However, when they finally reached the village, the welcome they were given was anything but warm...

- "Hey, look at these travelers there. They're so weird" –

- "Yeah... A monk, a woman, a kid, some kind of fox and a monster kid" –

Even though they continued walking without paying any mind to what the people said, this last comment in particular enraged Inuyasha:

- "Who're you calling a monster!?" – he screamed very angry. As he had gotten used to his friends and the inhabitants of Kaede's village treating him as part of them, this ended up becoming a very bad reminder of his life prior to waking up in the hut, or rather, of the horrors he went through during his true childhood.

- "Now, calm down Inuyasha. You don't want us to get drive away from the village when we've just arrived, do you?" – said Miroku in a stern tone.

- "Yes, I'm sorry, Houshi-sama" – answered Inuyasha as he looked at the ground with regret.

- 'I'm going to miss this kind of behavior from him when he finally returns to normality' – thought Miroku with grief. He then stopped for a moment and pointed to them a hut that had a window that looked more like a foldable table, over which a young woman was serving several kinds of food: onigiri, manju, fish and other – "Well, there is a place where we can stop and eat" -

As they were obviously hungry, they decided to stop and have a meal. Miroku used the money he had gained from his fake exorcisms to pay for the food he bought for everyone, and thus everyone began eating at their own pace, which made the children very happy, which in turn made Sango smile. However, as they were eating, a group of children came up to see them, all of which were dressed in kosode and a few in hakama, all of which were of dim colors and even some had stitches and patches…

- "Hi, I didn't think that girls as pretty as you came to dangerous places like this" – said one of the children in a mocking tone to Miko.

- 'How nasty...' – thought Miko irritated. He gave him a glare of repugnance and then turned to the other side to continue eating her onigiri in calm. However, Inuyasha felt that something wasn't right and decided to do something about it:

- "Hey! Leave Miko alone!" – he said enraged. The boy only began laughing in his face.

- "Oh, scary! A monster! What'cha gonna do? Scare us dead?" – said other boy trying to provoke Inuyasha.

- "You bas…" – began Inuyasha, but Sango interrupted them before things got uglier.

- "Don't pay any mind to them, they are just fools" – she whispered to him as she grabbed one of his shoulders with a very serious look on her face.

- "Okay, Sango-nee" – said Inuyasha a bit embarrased.

- "She's right, Inuyasha" – said Miko calmly as she continued eating: she had finished her onigiri and was now grabbing a bit of fish with the ohashi she had in front of her, - "We don't have to listen to a group of idiots like them" –

- "You're calling us idiots!?" – said the two kids enraged upon hearing what Miko thought of them – "We'll show you!"

But before they could do anything, Sango stood up and put herself between Inuyasha, Miko and the two kids:

- "Hold it! If you want to fight with them, you'll have to get over me first!" -

- "A woman?" – said the first in an incredulous tone, making Sango extremely angry: no one came out unharmed if they ever dared to suggest that Sango was weak or incapable for being a woman.

- "Oh, yeah? We'll see about that..." – she said as she cracked her knuckles. She then hit them in the head in the same way Inuyasha used to hit Shippou when he was in his normal form.

- "Want more?" – she asked as she prepared to repeat what she had just done, but the two kids simply got scared and ran away.

- "Thank you, Sango-nee" – said Inuyasha with a smile, but his face then showed a surprised expression because Sango's behavior seemed a bit weird to him – "But… why did you protect us like that?" -

- "It's because I have a little brother called Kohaku" – she explained as she went to sit beside them again and smiled in a melancholic way. Miroku was seated a bit farther and was talking with the owner of the hut about something, while Shippou had gotten up to look around the village – "He's a bit older than you both, and I always had to watch over him so nothing bad happened to him" -

- "And where's he?" – asked Miko in a curiosity-filled tone – "If you care so much about him, why isn't he with you?" -

- "I'll tell you when it's time to do it, okay?" – said Sango in a sharp tone, which made her smile change to a serious glare for a moment. Therefore, Miko understood it was a delicate topic and decided to not insist on it.

- "Alright" – she nodded. She then turned around: there she saw what Shippou was doing, which made her laugh – "Wow, looks like Shippou's having a lot of fun!" -

She said that because Shippou was surrounded by a group of girls, all dressed in kosode of light colors and decorated with all kinds of patterns, which said he was the cutest thing in the world and wanted to cuddle and touch him as if he was some sort of stuffed toy. Obviously, he was enjoying it a lot.

- "Ah... I don't wanna go away..." – he muttered as he sighed of happiness.

Miroku suddenly rose up from his seat, which surprised all of the others.

- "Very well, thank you" – he bowed before the owner of the hut and then turned towards the rest of the group – "Well, time to get going" -

- "Can't we stay here a little longer?" – said Shippou in a very disappointed voice.

- "No" – said Miroku in a sharp tone. He then proceeded to explain to the other about the things he heard from the owner – "Well, according to the information I could gather, the cave is located in a nearby mountain, but it's guarded by a monster" -

- "No problem! I'll rip it to shreds with my sword!" – exclaimed a very excited Inuyasha, which made everyone look at him.

- 'He's beginning to seem more and more like himself' – thought Miroku with an ironic smile.

They left the hut and continued their journey. They first stopped briefly so Sango could change her clothes and put on her battle suit, and once they were ready, they began walking the trail that took them to the mountain outside the village. However, as soon as they arrived, Inuyasha stood immobile and began sniffing the surrounding areas.

- "Huh? What's it, Inuyasha?" – asked Miko a bit weirded out about what he was doing.

- "I smell a monster, and it's very close to us!" – exclaimed Inuyasha, which put everyone on alert.

- "It's true! I can perceive its demonic aura too!" – exclaimed Miroku, who was already looking around for signs of the creature.

- "We better get ready to fight then!" – said Sango as he placed one hand over her Hiraikotsu.

Shortly later, an enormous monster shaped like a gigantic mantis with a mask on its forehead, similarly to the Ryuukossei, came out from the mountain.

- "Looks like I'm gonna have a lovely dinner!" – exclaimed the horrendous creature when it saw the group.

- "In your dreams, ugly! Kaze no Kizu!" – screamed Inuyasha as he threw it an energy wave, but even though it caused it great damage, the monster regenerated itself almost instantly.

- "I can't believe that an idiotic kid like you thinks he can beat me!" – exclaimed the monster to mock him.

As for Miko, she was very scared when she saw the monster. However, she was determined to help the others during the battle, and thus she wasn't going to start off by yielding herself to fear.

- "If he doesn't, I'll do it!" – she screamed at the monster determinedly as she fired a Purifying Arrow to it, but the monster regenerated itself again.

- "Fools, don't you see I'm immortal? There's no youkai or miko that can even scratch even, and even less if they're kids like you two!" – screamed the monster, mocking the attempts Miko and Inuyasha were making to damage it.

- "We'll see about that! Hiraikotsu!" – screamed Sango as she threw her boomerang to it, cutting off one of its pincers. However, the monster regenerated it shortly later. It then slammed its body over them, so Sango had to step in front of Miko and Inuyasha to protect them and repel the attack using her Hiraikotsu. Miko and Inuyasha tried to attack it using arrows and Tessaiga, but it didn't mean much because the monster regenerated any damage they caused to it.

- "Enough playing around, I'll end this now!" – said Miroku, who had already gotten fed up with all this. He waited until all the others had put some distance between themselves and the monster, and as soon as they did, he removed the rosary he had around his right hand and fully opened his palm – "Kazaana!" -

- "What is this monk trying to do!? Aaaagh!" – screamed the monster as it was absorbed into the hole. Miroku absorbed it immediately afterwards.

- "I guess it wasn't too hard" – said Miroku as he made a stupid-looking smile.

- "It wasn't too hard!?" – screamed all the others in rage. They didn't get injured at all thanks to Sango's blocking, but they still had gotten very exhausted because of the many attacks they had to avoid.

- "Sorry guys, but if you had allowed me to use the Kazaana from the beginning, you wouldn't have needed to go through all these problems" – he said waving his hand as if he were to scare away flies, which made the others sigh in exasperation.

They continued their walking through the mountain, and during their trek up nothing worthy of mention took place, until...

- "You are travelers, are you?" – asked an old man that wore a gray hakama and kosode. The kosode was decorated with green squares, and the old man himself had a scarce gray hair tied up in a topknot. He got close to them as soon as he spotted them.

- "Yes, that is correct, sir" – replied Miroku – "Our business is the hunting of youkai and the purification of evil presences" -

- "What is Houshi-sama talking about?" – asked a confused Miko to Sango.

- "Yeah, we don't really do that kind of stuff" – said Inuyasha crossing his arms as a neutral expression appeared in his face – "We're supposed to be searching for a way to restore Miko's memories, right?" -

- "Don't mind it" – whispered Sango – "Just play along with him" -

- "In that case, I need to ask you a favor. Do you know about the cave located near this place?" – asked the old man in a pleading tone.

- "Yes. In fact, we're headed for it right now" – replied Sango while having a hunch about what would be the favor.

- "Well, beside that cave there is a temple, but some monsters have defiled it" – said the old man with a very distressed voice. This confirmed Sango's suspicions.

- "And you need that we exterminate them, correct?" – asked Miroku gently.

- "Yes, as there is a very important relic for our village enshrined there: a crystal that attracts fortune, and we leave it purifying in the temple every year" – explained the old man.

Sango, Miroku, and Shippou huddled together and began whispering about how suspicious this entire situation was sounding. Miko and Inuyasha also heard what they were saying, but couldn't really understand it.

- "I don't know about you, but that sounds to me like a shard of the Shikon Pearl" – whispered Sango to the other.

- "Yes, but that's impossible. Kouga has two shards, Kohaku has one, we have another and Naraku has the rest of the Pearl" – said Miroku to remind her of the current situation.

- "Could you help me with this?" – asked the old man, which put a stop their chit-chat.

- "Ehh… yes sir, of course" – said Miroku with a nervous laughter.

- "I'm really grateful to you" – said the old man. He bowed before them, and he continued his way back to the village.

- 'These names sound familiar to me... Have I ever heard them?' – thought Miko confused as they continued walking.

A little later, they reached the entrance of a cave, and right to the side, there was a temple built out of gray rocks, excepting for the roof, which was made of green tiles according to the style employed back in that era. Despite being so deteriorated, it still retained vestiges of having gone through better times. However, a terrible presence could be felt from the inside…

- "Hmm, it does have a very strong evil presence" – said Miroku as he wielded his shakujou with both hands – "There must be a large number of monsters inside" -

- "Yeah, but we'll take an eternity to clean it out if get to exterminate all of them one by one" – said Sango thoughtfully upon making herself an idea of what awaited them inside.

- "Okay, then leave them to me! With the Kaze no Kizu, I can destroy them all in a second!" – said Inuyasha excitedly as he unsheathed his sword.

- "Or me! We can defeat them easily with my arrows" – said Miko as excited as him.

- "I can too! My techniques can finish these weak monsters off!" – said Shippou making a determined expression very similar to Inuyasha's.

Sango stood still for a couple of minutes to think, and she came up with an idea:

- "Hmmm… I know" – she said as she clapped her hands and turned to the children with a smile – "What about doing this all together! That way we'll finish this faster!"

- "Though if I use my Kazaana…" – began Miroku, but Miko interrupted him…

- "No fair, Houshi-sama! You already eliminated a big monster doing that!" – said Miko annoyed.

- "She's partly right. And besides, it's possible that there are poisonous monsters inside that place" – said Sango in a calm tone. She then had another idea and told it to Miroku – "You'd do better to go into the cave and search for the medallions there" -

- "Very well" – said a resigned Miroku.

So they ended splitting up: Sango, Miko, Inuyasha, and Shippou went into the temple while Miroku entered the cave.

- "Okay, listen up: this is no game or training anymore" – said Sango severely after they entered the temple – "You'll have to fight with all your strength if you want to continue living" –

- "Understood" – said Inuyasha to then turn and face the countless monsters inside the temple. He unsheathed his sword and transformed it as the others began getting ready to fight – "Okay monsters, time to disappear! Kaze no Kizu!" -

As soon as he screamed the name of the attack, he launched the energy waves and disintegrated several monsters in a single blow, while Miko fired an arrow against several monsters that were gathered in a single point.

- "There it goes!" – as soon as she let it fly, the arrow covered itself in a blue aura and annihilated several of the monsters she was aiming at.

- "Hiraikotsu!" – screamed Sango as she threw her boomeran, which diced all of the monsters that got on its way.

- "Kitsune-bi!" – said Shippou as he jumped and fired blue flames around himself, burning the monsters that they came in contact with.

- "Here goes another!" – said Miko, but this time, the arrow covered itself in a purple aura and was shot off with more force, eliminated more monsters than in the previous occasion.

- "Wow, what was that?" – asked her impressed.

- "Looks like you pulled off a Sacred Arrow! It's a stronger form of the ones you shot before!" – said Sango proudly while she fought against a monster using her boomerang.

- "Amazing!" – exclaimed Miko overjoyed.

- "This isn't time to get impressed!" – said Inuyasha in a bad mood, and he was right, as the more monsters they killed, the more seemed to come out.

- "Yeah, okay!" – said Miko as she fired another arrow.

After a while, they began getting exhausted. Inuyasha still had lots of energy to spend, but upon seeing the state of his friends…

- 'Shit, isn't there a better attack I can use?' – he thought furious at himself, but then, as if it was responding to his thoughts, Tessaiga coated itself on crystal. He looked at it fearfully – "Wh… what's happening to my sword…?" -

Sango's eyes became the size of saucers when she saw what was happening to Tessaiga...

- "It's the Kongousouha technique!" – she explained to Inuyasha – "Swing your sword to use it!" -

- "Great! Kongousouha!" – screamed Inuyasha as he swung his sword, making a barrage of diamonds fly off from it and pierce through the monsters. He was overjoyed upon seeing his "new" attack, and faced again the monsters he had before him.

- "This is great! Kongousouha!" – screamed Inuyasha again, launching another stream of diamonds and mincing the monsters that were in the way of the spears.

This encouraged the others, making them regain the vitality in their task of exterminating the monsters, and Shippou decided to not fall behind Inuyasha when it came to attacks:

- "Giant Top!" – he said as he rolled up and threw a small top, which suddenly enlarged and began trampling the monsters in front of him.

They continued like this for a while, with Inuyasha alternating between the Kongousouha, the Kaze no Kizu, Shippou alternating betwen his Kitsune-bi and Giant Top, Miko shooting off both kinds of arrows, and Sango fighting with Hiraikotsu and her wakizashi, until…

- "Looks like we're about to finish!" – said Inuyasha after another Kaze no Kizu. There weren't many monsters left at this point.

- "Don't get too confident! It looks like there's a larger monster here!" – said Sango because she had bad feeling about this situation, which ended coming true: a monster with human-like appearance, but with green and scaly skin and with the hair of a green darker than its skin, appeared out from nowhere.

- "Humans, a kitsune and a hanyou kid! You really think you can defeat me, the great Rizaryu-sama, in my territory!?" – roared the monster when he saw them.

- "What a weird name..." – said Shippou as he eyed it.

- "This place isn't yours" – screamed Sango – "Leave this temple at once!" -

- "I don't think so, and you won't be able to defeat me" – said Rizaryu in a mocking tone – "I'll have some fun with you, and you'll be a tasty dinner too!"

- "We'll see about that! Kaze no Kizu!" – screamed Inuyasha as he shot off a wave of energy, but the attack was repelled by a black transparent barrier that surrounded the monster.

- "What the heck!?" – said Inuyasha upon seeing this unpleasant surprise.

- "It has a barrier!" – exclaimed Sango upon seeing this – "We won't be able to defeat it like this!" -

- "What can we do, then?" – asked Miko shocked.

- "Give up and I'll finish you up swiftly..." – hissed the monster as if it wanted to eat them up already.

- "Never!" – screamed Sango at the monster, and then she turned to Inuyasha – "Inuyasha, you can defeat it, but you need to use another technique with your sword" -

- "But how?" – asked Inuyasha anxiously – "Totosai-sensei didn't teach me more attacks!" -

- "Have more confidence in yourself! Tessaiga has other powers; you just need to wake them up!" – said Sango to cheer him up.

Inuyasha decided to trust Sango and focused his thoughts in Tessaiga:

- "Okay... Tessaiga, please... show me what other abilities I can use with your help..." – thanks to Inuyasha's focus, Tessaiga changed to its red form, leaving him dumbfounded – "Whoa! And what's this for?" -

- "That lets you shoot a beam that destroys barriers!" – said Sango hurriedly – "now use it!" -

- "Ok... here it goes!" – said Inuyasha as he swung his sword.

- "What are you doing!?" – said Rizaryu when it saw what Inuyasha was doing.

The next instant, Tessaiga shot off a blue and yellow beam, which upon making contact with the barrier made it break like a piece of glass struck by a stone.

- "This can't be! My energy barrier was destroyed! You'll pay for this!" – screamed an enraged Rizaryu.

- "And what are you going to do, ugly spawn of hell?" – asked Inuyasha to mock it.

- "This!" – said as it shot a purple energy beam from its mouth. As the attack was so sudden, they didn't have time to avoid it, causing them to get caught by the beam and getting injured to the point of losing consciousness. The only one that could escape this was Inuyasha, as upon seeing what it was doing, he jumped over it and ended up behind it.

- "Sango-nee! Shippou! MIKO!" – screamed Inuyasha as he ran to his friends and tried to wake them up. Upon seeing how they weren't responding, tears began slipping out from his eyes, and he turned toward the monster – "Damn you.. YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" -

- "Oh, now the baby has begun crying?"- said Rizaryu in a mocking tone, and he then looked at Inuyasha with an evil smile – "Don't worry, as you'll be joining them now!" -

And having said this, it began charging energy and shot off a beam even stronger than the previous one.

- "Damn, what I'm gonna do now?" – asked Inuyasha with fury – 'Wait a sec…' -

That instant, the memories of his training sessions with Totosai from two days prior began coming back to him...

- "Remember this: the Kaze no Kizu isn't useful for attacking only. You can also use it for a more powerful technique called the Bakuryuuha. For that, you have to wait until the enemy uses an energy attack and strike the spot that seems the weirdest to you in that energy with the Kaze no Kizu, which'll let you defeat them with their own power" – explained Totosai with a severe gaze.

- "Okay, that's what I'll do" – nodded Inuyasha as he smiled.

- "I hope so. That attack can even end up saving your life" – said Totosai.

He suddenly came back to the present, and upon fixing his gaze on the beam, he noticed something strange, just like Totosai told him:

- 'That's it! I see a part of the beam darker than the rest! I know what I've gotta do!' – thought Inuyasha as he put himself in attack stance.

- "This is your end, trash! Kaze no Kizu!" – screamed Inuyasha as he launched an energy wave. This made the Kaze no Kizu fuse with the energy from Rizaryu's beam, forming a large whirlwind.

- "What've you done to my demonic energy!?" – the monster asked in horror.

- "Now it's one of my attacks, and it's called the Bakuryuuha!" – screamed Inuyasha in rage.

- "Nooo!" – screamed the monster as it was torn apart by the whirlwind. Its remains were scattered throughout the room and turned into dust after a few seconds.

- "I did it! But... the others..." – muttered Inuyasha as he fell to his knees again and the tears began appearing in his eyes – "It was like with mom… I couldn't do anything to protect or save them…" -

However, he heard they were still breathing, and hoping that they were still alive, he went to their side. When he got close to them, they began stirring and regaining consciousness.

- "Are you… okay…?" – asked Inuyasha scared.

- "Yeah. We have some bruises, but it's nothing serious" – smiled Miko. She had some scratches and bruises in her face, arms and feet, but she didn't have even light wounds, and while her kosode had gotten a bit dirty, it didn't have any torn or broken parts anywhere. The same thing could be said about Sango and Shippou: they had several scratches and bruises, and their clothes suffered a bit of damage, but as for the rest, they were fine.

- "You don't know how worried I was… I thought you'd died… because of me…" – he told Miko as he embraced her and began crying on her shoulder.

- "Don't worry. Everything'll be okay now" – said Miko gently as she stroked his back. When Inuyasha finally calmed down, they separated from each other and he stood up as he looked at her with a smile of relief and joy.

- "And what about the monster?" – asked Sango as she looked around.

- "I defeated it using the Bakuryuuha" – said Inuyasha as he puffed his chest with pride.

- "You used the Bakuryuuha!?" – Sango was so surprised she couldn't believe what she had just heard – "It's amazing that you could use that attack!" –

- "Thanks!" – said Inuyasha to Sango. However, at that moment, he saw an insect… A Saimyoushou to be more precise… - "Sango-nee, what's that bug?" -

- "What bug!?" – asked Sango alarmed as she turned around to see, hoping it wasn't what she thought. However, when she noticed her suspicious proved true, her face went pale – "No!" -

She tried to kill it throwing her Hiraikotsu to it, but the insect escaped before the boomerang could have reached it.

- "Damn, it ran away!" – she said enraged as she fell to her knees and punched the floor of the temple.

- "What was that, Sango-nee?" – asked Miko very alarmed upon seeing Sango's reaction.

- "Don't mind it for now" – said Sango in a sharp tone. However, she was beyond terrified – 'Shit; now Naraku knows about this. We'll have to be more careful from now on' -

At that moment, Miroku ran inside the temple carrying something shining in his right hand.

- "I got them! I got the medallions!" – said he joyfully as he showed them a silver and a golden medallion, both adorned with several glyphs and each sustained by a piece of string of the same color as their respective medallion. The center of the golden medallion had a ruby embedded on it, while the silver medallion had a sapphire in that place.

- "Thanks, Houshi-sama" – said Sango with a noticeable lack of enthusiasm, and before Miroku had the chance to ask why, she explained it to him in whispers – "Naraku is aware about what happened to Inuyasha and Kagome. We'll have to protect them even more now" -

- "What!?" – asked Miroku very flustered – "But how…!?" -

- "One of his Saimyoushou appeared here a moment ago and it escaped before I could kill it..." – admitted Sango very mad at herself.

- "I see… but don't beat yourself up over it… this was bound to happen at some point" – said Miroku to cheer her up. Sango didn't seem to be very convinced by this, but still smiled at him in gratitude.

- "Ah!" – exclaimed Inuyasha and Miko upon seeing what Miroku had on his hands.

- "Are these the medallions we were looking for?" – asked Miko excitedly.

- "Yes, that's right" – said Miroku as he smiled gently, but he then turned to look at Sango with a mysterious expression – "However, there's something odd about this: there wasn't anything guarding the cave."

- "Maybe the monster we just defeated was the guardian of that cave?" – asked Sango.

- "It's possible. And that isn't all: I noticed there were some glyphs engraved near the place where I found the medallions, and they were very similar to the ones that were carved in the rocks in the cave of the springs. Perhaps they are related in some way, or…" – Miroku said something, but no one could hear him because Shippou began screaming at that moment: a strange piece of glass that seemed to have come from a mirror had fallen from the roof in front of Miko and Inuyasha, and it was reflecting their true forms.

- "Who is... that girl?" – asked Miko weirded out as she looked at her reflection: an older girl with her same face, hair and eye color; but she had her hair loose and wore a strange outfit she didn't remember ever seeing before.

- "Is that... me?" – asked Inuyasha with the same voice tone as Miko upon seeing his reflection: it was himself but older-looking. The next instant, the mirror shard shattered by itself, and Miko and Inuyasha began trembling uncontrollably.

- "What... what's happening to me?" – asked Miko as she fell to her knees and began grabbing her head, as if she was suffering from a strong headache.

Sango and Miroku were at the border of a nervous breakdown upon seeing the state in which their friends were, unable to understand what was happening to them, until Miroku finally noticed what it was…

- "Now! As they have seen their true forms, they have started to fall into insanity!" – screamed her alarmed as he turned to look at Sango. Sango immediately took the silver medallion from Miroku's hands and ran to Miko, while Shippou had gotten paralyzed with fear.

- "Quick! Put that medallion around Inuyasha's neck, as I'll take care of Kagome!" – she said in an authoritative tone as she did all she could to put the medallion around her friend's neck.

With some difficulty, they managed to put the medallions around the necks of both children, and once they already had them on, they stopped holding their heads, letting their arms to the mercy of gravity, their eyes appeared blurred out, and they began gazing at the distance for some instants, until…

- "Sa... san... Sango..." – muttered Miko with an empty and distant voice.

- "Miko, are you okay?" – asked Sango anxiously.

The shine returned to the eyes of Miko and Inuyasha, both stopped trembling, and a few seconds later, they stood up again to then look at their surroundings in confusion.

- "Sango-chan, why are you calling me that?" – she asked confused – "You know my name's Kagome" -

- "You've recovered your memory!" – said Sango overjoyed as she embraced her.

- "Wait a sec..." – said Kagome when she noticed there was something weird here – "Why happened to my voice? Why I'm feeling different? Why are you taller now? And where are we?"

- "How weird, I feel like I've been sleeping for a long while..." – said Inuyasha looking around himself weirded out – "Wait… what's up with my voice, and why I'm feeling so different?" -

He then looked at Kagome from top to down, and blushed violently...

- "Kagome with clothes from this era? She looks pretty like this, but she looks like a kid now… I better try to pretend I don't care about it…." – he thought in a rush, but due to the nerves, he screwed up the whole thing very badly – "Kagome, what's up with you? Why do you look so silly?" -

Kagome turned toward Inuyasha with an enraged face as soon as she heard these words...

- "You're the one to talk, as you look like you shrunk or something! And why are you saying I look silly?" – she asked very angrily. To check what Inuyasha was talking about, she went up to Sango, took out a small mirror from the backpack she was carrying at look at herself on it. Sango couldn't do much to stop her due to how angry Kagome was.

- "Aaah! What happened to me? …And why I'm dressed like this!?" – asked Kagome as soon as she could speak again after the impression she received from her "little" change in appearance. Inuyasha then looked at his reflection too.

- "Wha!? No way, I look exactly as when I was a kid!" – screamed Inuyasha, leaving Miroku and Sango dumbfounded: by the look of it, they didn't remember anything that happened after the drank the water from the spring.

- "Don't you remember anything of the things you've done the last five days?" – asked Miroku to sort this situation out.

- "What do you mean, Miroku-sama? The last thing I remember before this was that we entered that cave, and I saw a weird pink glow!" – replied Kagome angrily, but she then fell silent because the memories of these five days began coming back to her: she and Inuyasha playing together happily, her training with Kaede, the time she was sick, the singing practice, the festival, and the little romantic scene between both – "Wait… I think I remember something, but it feels more like it was a dream than anything… I see myself training at many things with Kaede-obaasan, being sick, and singing in a festival and… I can't say it!" -

She said this because she was about to say that she and Inuyasha had kissed, and she couldn't bear with embarrassment of saying this aloud.

- "I'm the same, but I see myself doing other things like training with old man Totosai, searching for ingredients for a medicine, and..." – he shut up for the same reason as Kagome – "Other things…" -

Then, Sango went up to Inuyasha: it was time to know if he had managed to come to a decision regarding "that" after the recent happenings.

- "Inuyasha, I need to ask you something" – she told him gently. Given the time she had treating them like children, she couldn't just put aside this behavior.

- "What's it?" – asked Inuyasha as he eyed her.

- "Who is the most important person to you now?" – asked Sango with the same voice tone.

- "Why you ask that, Sango?" – he asked as his face turned red slowly.

- "It's just that I'm curious about it..." – replied Sango as she laughed about how embarrassed he was getting.

Inuyasha just fixed his gaze on the floor...

- "I don't know... I can't say..." – it was all that came out from his lips, but that only managed to enrage Kagome.

- "Are you saying that because you care more about Kikyou than me!? Despite the promise we made to each other under the stars!?" – she screamed, as she was losing her hold over herself due to anger.

- "It isn't like that! I mean, it's... Why you always have to misunderstand things!?" – said Inuyasha, who was getting himself angry too due to Kagome's unexpected reaction.

- "I'm not misunderstanding anything!" – replied Kagome, and before Inuyasha had a chance to talk back – "And shut up! Sit down! Sit down! Sit down! Sit down! Sit down! SIT DOWN!"

Inuyasha ended buried in a large hole after the series of "Sit Down"s that Kagome gave him.

- "I think it wasn't a good idea to ask him that" – whispered Miroku to Sango after a brief sigh.

- "I couldn't help it. I wanted to ask him that when he regained his memory" – replied her in whispers with an embarrassed voice.

After a while panting in anger, Kagome had cooled down a bit, but that sensation was replaced quickly by a worse one: panic. She had the meeting with her friends in a few days, and if they saw her like she was at the moment, she only imagined a catastrophe as the final outcome.

- "And what I'm supposed to do now!?" – she asked scared as she looked at Sango – "I can't go back to my time like this!" -

- "But should go see your family" – said Sango gently in an attempt to calm her down – "They must be very worried about you…" -

- "Maybe, but my mom will faint if she looks at how I'm right now, especially if she sees my feet!" – said Kagome scared as she pointed to them: she had them smeared of dirt and mud.

- "Even with that so-innocent appearance you're still as cruel as ever, Kagome" – said Inuyasha from the hole. He jumped out from it and landed right in front of Kagome, looking at her with irritation – "I was thinking about going along with you to your time to not make you go through this alone, but I'm thinking I better forget about it! I don't wanna help you after what you just did!" -

This really affected Kagome: she needed more than ever to have Inuyasha at her side. She bowed down in front of him and began hurriedly apologizing…

- "I'm sorry! I was stupid for doing that, even more after I defended you from Shippou when we lost our memories… Please, forgive me!" – this made everyone stare at her, as she was behaving exactly how she was when she still didn't have her memories: when she still was "Miko". Still, this seemed to have calmed Inuyasha down, as he smiled:

- "Okay, it's settled then. I'll go with you!" -

- "Inuyasha… thanks!" – she said as she stood up and ran to embrace him. However, they separated almost immediately as they blushed.

- "Okay then, let's go back to the village so you can go to the well" – said Miroku as they began walking to the temple's exit.

- "And you two don't even think about taking the medallions off!" – said Sango severely to Kagome and Inuyasha – "If you take them off or if you lose them, you'll lose your memories again!" -

- "Okay okay, we know" – said Kagome annoyed. She didn't like at all the idea of being treated like a child just because of her current appearance. As for Inuyasha, he only made a face of extreme annoyance after Sango said that.

They took the rest of the afternoon going down the mountain trail and going through the village, and by the time they were approaching Kaede's village, it was dusk already.

- "Kagome, this might soon stupid, but... I've got the feeling that we met before we met each other at the Goshinboku…" – said Inuyasha thoughtfully.

- "Inuyasha, I'm feeling the same. But maybe that's just an effect of what just happened to us" – said Kagome, thinking it was just another effect of the water they drank.

- "Well then, next stop, the village" – announced Miroku cheerfully, which took both away from their thoughts.

- "I just hope you won't go back to your old habits, Houshi-sama" – said Sango as she glared at Miroku angrily.

- "Ehhh... yes, Sango..." – said Miroku as he made a shameless face.

- "We'll see about that soon" – muttered Shippou as she looked at him with annoyance, while Inuyasha and Kagome just sighed in response.

(End of Chapter)

(Ending: Dearest)


	4. Back to the Present

Capítulo 4:

Back to the Present

(Opening: Grip)

The following day to the regaining of her memories, Kagome decided to go back to her time alongside Inuyasha, as she still hadn't thought out what she was going to tell her family when they saw her with her current little girl appearance.

Before departing, she decided to bid farewell and thank Kaede for everything she had done for her.

- "Well Kagome, are you ready to go?" – asked Kaede gently.

- "Yes, Kaede-obaasan, and I'm very grateful that you took care of my while I didn't have my memories" – replied Kagome as she bowed slightly in front of her.

- "Don't mention it. Actually, it was a nice experience to have been your teacher during this short time" – she said as she smiled at her.

At their side, Inuyasha was talking with Totosai, though their conversation wasn't being even half as pleasant in comparison to Kaede and Kagome's.

- "Hey, old man Totosai, why didn't you want to teach me the Bakuryuuha from the beginning?" – asked Inuyasha with a very irritated face.

- "Because you couldn't even transform Tessaiga in its true form," – replied Totosai as if it was the most obvious thing in the world – "how do you think I was going to teach you that technique?" -

And as usual, Inuyasha hit him in the head.

- "You should learn to respect your elders..." – said Totosai crying as he held his head in pain.

They then talked for a while with the children from Hourai Island...

- "We wanted to thank you for letting us be in the performance with you" – said Kagome.

- "It's nothing. Actually, that is one of the few things we could do to pay you back for the great help you gave us" – said Asagi gently.

- "Though they still are useless" – said Roku, making Kagome and Inuyasha look at him with rage.

- "That's right, bro" – said Dai, which finished what his brother began: that Inuyasha gave a good hit to each of them.

- "Don't forget who you're dealing with..." – said Inuyasha with his arms crossed and an enraged expression in his face.

- "So, what are you going to do now?" – asked Moegi very interested.

- "We'll first go to my home, and then we'll search for a way to get back to normal" – replied Kagome with a smile.

- "I wish you can find it soon!" – said Ai cheerfully.

- "Yeah! We wish you good luck in your search!" – said Shion.

- "Thanks!" – said Kagome.

They then went to the clearing of the well and began with the final preparations.

- "Inuyasha, are we ready to cross over then?" – asked Kagome.

- "Yeah, whenever you want" – replied he as he began carrying Kagome's backpack.

- "Are you sure that you don't need anything else from us before going?" – asked Sango.

- "Yeah, we only ask you that you find a way to return us to normal as soon as possible" – replied Kagome calmly.

- "Yeah, I wanna go back to normal quickly" – said Inuyasha as he showed displeasure about this situation on his face – "We look stupid like this" -

- "Oh, yeah? I think we look cute like this!" – said Kagome.

- "No, we don't!" – replied Inuyasha.

- "Yeah, we do!" – replied Kagome.

- "No!" -

- "SIT DOWN!" – said Kagome to put an end to the argument, as Inuyasha fell with forcé against the ground and stayed quiet.

- "They might have their memories now, but they're still acting like kids" – whispered Miroku to Sango.

Unfortunately, both Inuyasha and Kagome heard him.

- "Who are you calling kids!?" -

- "Let me remind you I'm fifteen years old already!" – said Kagome angry.

- "Yeah, we know!" – said Sango as she tried to calm them down. However, she was thinking to herself that despite that being her age, she looked and acted like a girl of eight.

- "Kagome, we forgot to ask you something..." – said Miroku remembering something – "Didn't you feel anything strange in the temple yesterday?" -

- "No, there weren't any monsters aside of the ones we exterminated or shards of the Pearl... however, I felt a weird presence when we were leaving…" – said Kagome confused.

- "Well, it was only to make sure that..." – began Sango, but Inuyasha interrupted her.

- "Let's get going already!" – said he impatiently.

- "Yeah, okay!" – said Kagome as they went over to the well and jumped in.

The familiar tunnel of lights appeared around them, and as soon as they felt they were standing again on solid ground and the lights had disappeared, Inuyasha jumped out from it holding Kagome with his right hand, and holding her backpack in his left.

- "Stop bringing so much stuff! I can barely carry it now!" – complained Inuyasha as soon as they were standing out of the well.

- "Stop complaining so much, I still don't know what I'm going to do" – said Kagome anxiously.

- "Just do as if you were coming back as always"- suggested Inuyasha.

- "And how is it that you can't carry my backpack anymore, but you can still hold your sword and fight monsters like always?" – asked Kagome with curiosity.

- "I dunno. Maybe Tessaiga is used to me already and my strength for fighting monsters is different from the one I have for carrying stuff around" – replied Inuyasha as he shrugged off.

They came out from the shack of the well and headed quickly to Kagome's house so no one else around could see them. They opened the door and went in.

- "Mom, grandpa, Souta! I'm here!" – announced Kagome. Souta was the first one to hear her, as he was in the living room.

- "Sis, is that you? Your voice sounds different" – said Souta as he went to greet her, but when he reached the entrance, he was paralyzed upon seeing them – "Sis…? Inu… yasha? What happened to you two!?" -

- "Souta... let me explain it..." – said Kagome trying to calm him down, but it was useless.

- "Aaah! Mom! Grandpa!" – he screamed as he ran back into the house.

- "Souta, wait!" – said Kagome as she tried to stop him in vain – "Great, just what we needed: an uproar" -

- "You shouldn't have called him" – said Inuyasha crossing his arms.

- "I didn't think this was going to happen!" – said Kagome, and when it seemed to were going to begin arguing, Souta reappeared alongside with his mother and grandfather.

- "Kagome, is that you, dear?" – asked her mother as she looked at her with eyes the size of saucers – "What happened to you?" -

- "Well…" – replied Kagome as she looked at the floor a bit embarrassed - "it's a long story" -

The next half –hour, they sat in the dining room as Kagome explained to her family everything that happened to her and Inuyasha, including what she did during the days she had her memory sealed. However, she refrained from telling them about the romantic moment between her and Inuyasha, as she thought it wasn't time yet for her family to know about it.

- "Now we're both about the same age! That's great!" – said Souta as he put a large smile on his face.

- "That isn't great at all!" – replied Kagome – "What I'm going to do with school and my friends now!?" -

- "Well, you're lucky that classes have ended already" – said her mother.

- "But I was about to meet with my friends in a few days and…" – said Kagome crestfallen, but her mother embraced her.

- "Dear, I know it's hard, but I'm sure you'll find a way to solve this problem... But until you manage to do so, you should be enjoying what you're going through instead of suffering for it" – said her mother as she gently stroke Kagome's hair.

- "Thank you… mom…" – said Kagome as she separated from her mother.

- "I'll cure her with one of my scrolls!" – screamed the grandfather suddenly, making everyone stare at him.

- "Please, old man! If your pieces of paper were useless for sealing the well, they'll be even more useless for this!" – replied Inuyasha, which made Kagome's grandfather scream as he began crying.

- "Don't mind grandpa. He goes all crazy with his amulets and scrolls sometimes" – whispered Souta to Inuyasha.

Kagome's mother then stood up from the kotetsu…

- "I'll be going to do some shopping then" – she turned to face her daughter – "Kagome, could you stay home until I'm back?" -

- "Huh, why?" – asked Kagome a bit dumbfounded.

- "You yourself said that you didn't want anyone to see you like this, right? And you'd attract a lot of attention if you went out while still wearing clothes from 500 years ago" – said her mother.

- "Oh… right. Ok then" – replied Kagome.

- "Don't worry, I'll let you go for a walk once I'm back" – smiled her mother. She then left the dining room and the last sound that was heard was the one made by the main door when it closed.

- "Inuyasha, wanna do anything?" – asked Souta.

- "Hmm, what can we do?" – asked Inuyasha.

- "Well, we could watch TV or something…" – said Souta.

- "You mean the magic box that shows pictures?" – asked Inuyasha with a lot of interest in the idea.

- "Yeah. Wanna do that?" – asked Souta.

- "Yeah!" – replied Inuyasha.

- "You two do whatever you want. I'll be going to my room" – said Kagome as she stood up. She then left the dining room, went up the stairs and entered her room to then leave herself fall into the bed. She turned around and stared at the roof as she thought…

- 'Now I know how it feels to be a girl in the Warring-States Era. That makes my room feel comfier that I'd ever thought it was…' -

- 'But... why I did that when Shippou insulted Inuyasha? How is it that I and Inuyasha got along so well during that time in which we had our memories sealed? And what did Inuyasha mean with everything he said during it all?' -

She began remembering more clearly everything they had told each other that night, including the promise and the kiss.

- 'I finally could see his gentle side again: he bothered to take care of me while I was sick, and he behaved better than I ever had seen, but… Is he going to pick over Kikyou now? After having made that promise and having kissed like that? Or… is he going to continue playing dumb and being indecisive between her and me!? Or… is he going to leave me for her...?' -

She cut off the flow of her thoughts at that point, as just thinking about the eternal love triangle between her, Inuyasha and Kikyou caused her heart to throb painfully. She stood up from her bed, and began checking herself, noticing she was a bit dirty.

- "I think I'll go wash myself a little, and then I'll have a short nap" – she told herself as she went to her bathroom. She washed off her hands, feet and face, and then she went back to her room, tucked herself into her bed and shortly later, she fell asleep.

Meanwhile, over at the living room downstairs, Souta was trying to teach Inuyasha how to play a fighting videogame…

- "I don't get how you're supposed to play this!" – complained Inuyasha as he mashed the buttons in the control with no reason or rhyme to it.

- "Calm down a bit. You just need to learn what each button do" – said Souta trying to show him how it was done. Despite the distraction, he didn't have much problem winning the fight. On the other hand, when Inuyasha tried again, he only got defeated.

- "I'm not still doing it well!" – he said enraged.

- "You just need more practice. And talking about practice, how are these special skills you have with your sword?" – asked Souta with a lot of curiosity.

- "They're very impressive!" – said Inuyasha proudly, but he then stood up and took Tessaiga from the floor at his side – "Do you wanna see 'em?" –

- "Eh, I think you shouldn't do it…" – said Souta scared as he thought – 'Especially after that time in which he almost blew up a plane with that energy wave…' -

- "Ah well... as you want" – said Inuyasha disappointed as he left his sword once again in the floor and began getting into the game again.

A while later, Kagome woke up from her nap and began stirring to get up from bed.

- "Ah, that was a nice nap!" – she then looked at the door of her room, and remembered with some worry about Inuyasha still being in the house – "I wonder what is he doing now?" -

Thinking he could be doing some kind of disaster, she went down to look. She was greatly relieved to see how Inuyasha was calmly playing videogames with Souta when she entered the living room.

- "Huh? You've spent all this time playing videogames?" – she asked a bit surprised.

- "Yeah, Sis! Inuyasha is a quick learner!" – commented Souta.

- "Yeah! I've never had so much fun, excepting when I destroy a monster for real!" – said Inuyasha as he focused in beating another opponent.

- "And to think you were doing this while I was resting..." - said Kagome as she sighed. However, she began giggling a little upon noticing how much this seemed to fit Inuyasha.

- "What're you laughing at now, Kagome?" – asked Inuyasha as he put the game in pause and turned to look at her.

- "It's nothing. Don't mind me" – said Kagome with a mischievous smile. Before they could anything else, they heard the sound of the main door opening and closing.

- "Ah! It must be mom!" – said Kagome. And in fact…

- "Kagome! Can you come here for a bit, dear?" – called her mother.

- "Coming!" – said Kagome as she ran off to the entrance.

- "Did you spend a good time, sweetie?" – asked her mother when they were face to face again.

- "Come on, mom! Don't treat me like a kid!" – said Kagome pouting.

- "Sorry, couldn't help it" – said her mother laughing a little – "It's been quite a long time since I last saw you like this, after all" –

- "But it's so embarrassing…" – said Kagome as she blushed.

- "Come on; don't worry so much about it. And well, I've brought you some new clothes" – she said as she took out a bag from the several she was carrying and gave it to Kagome – "As I said before, you'd probably get some unwanted attention if you went around wearing that kosode, not to mention it seems like it needs some cleaning" -

Kagome took out the bag and opened it up to see her new clothes: it was a light blue blouse adorned with a small green jeweled brooch, which was sustaining a light yellow shawl, a white skirt, and two pairs of footwear: modern sandals and zori similar to the ones used 500 years ago, which were also coupled with tabi.

- "I hope you like them" – said Kagome's mother as she smiled to her daughter.

- "I really like them! Thanks, mom!" – said Kagome as she hugged her.

- "Glad to hear it, dear. By the way, shouldn't you go take a bath? I'll get your clothes ready in the meantime" – suggested her mother.

- "Yes!" – she then focused her attention on the footwear – "Oh, and what are the sandals and zori for?" -

- "The sandals are for you to use here and the zori for when you get back to the Warring States Era. You don't have any other footwear that fits you now, right?" – said her mother with a smile – "I guessed it by how you were when you and Inuyasha returned today" -

- "Err… yeah… but still thanks a lot! That'll make things much easier when I go back there! Oh by the way mom… could you wash my kosode, please?" – asked Kagome.

- "You're going to need it again for when you go back there, right?" – asked her mother.

- "Yes... and I want to take care of it as much as I can... as Kaede-obaasan gave it to me…" – said Kagome a bit embarrassed.

- "Okay, I'll wash it for you while you're on the bath" – nodded her mother.

- "Okay, thanks!" – she said as she took her new clothes and ran back to her room.

After she finished bathing, Kagome came out of her room wearing her new clothes. She also let her hair loose, like she used to.

- "These clothes look very nice on you, dear" – said her mother.

- "Thanks, mom!" – replied Kagome.

- "Don't mention it. You're going for a walk, right?" – asked her mother

- "Yeah, I need to take my mind off some things" – said Kagome as she looked at the roof.

- "And why don't you bring your friend with you?" – suggested her mother.

- "Do you mean Inuyasha?" – asked Kagome to then lower her gaze to the floor – "I'm not sure I should…" -

- "But I think he'd enjoy going out too, and more if it's with you" – said her mother.

- "Okay, I'll take him with me" – said Kagome with a sigh of resignation.

After a while, in which Kagome had to battle with Inuyasha in order to get him away from the TV, they were at the entrance ready to go out.

- "Souta... are you sure you don't wanna come with us?" – asked Kagome.

- "Sorry, I can't today. I've got a soccer practice at school this afternoon" – replied Souta with some bitterness on his voice.

- "Ah well… see you later!" – said Kagome as she went out of the house with Inuyasha behind her.

- "Take care!" – said Kagome's mother.

Before they began taking the steps down to the city, Kagome made Inuyasha put on a cap to cover his dog ears, like always.

- "Inuyasha, let's just make it clear that if we meet with anyone who knows us in the city, let's pretend we're other people, okay?" – said Kagome very anxiously as she helped him put on the cap.

- "Okay, but why?" – asked Inuyasha confused.

- "Because if anyone learns we're us, they're going to make an uproar!" – exclaimed kagome.

- "Yeah, fine. I don't get why you're being such a worrywart about it" – said Inuyasha annoyed.

They walked through the city for a good while, looking at the storefronts in the streets every now and then, though Kagome had to pull Inuyasha away from a few of them because he got entranced at the toy and electronics stores due to all the shiny things that were exhibited on them. The same was true for Kagome when they in front of clothing stores and bookstores.

However, during their little walk, they at one point saw Kagome's friends from far away.

- "Oh no!" – said Kagome when she saw them coming closer to them – "If they learn I'm me, I don't wanna even think about what'll happen!" -

- "Come up with something then!" – said Inuyasha.

- "And what you think I'm trying to do!?" – she replied divided between rage and panic.

- "Hi!" – said Ayumi's voice behind them.

Kagome turned around slowly and very scared.

- "He… hello…" -

The faces of the three girls looked at her a bit startled, and they then began examining her face very meticulously with their gazes. Kagome endured their scrutiny, filled with fear about what would happen if they learned who she was.

- "Huh? How weird… you're just like our friend Kagome, but smaller…" – said Yuka as she looked at her.

- "And this boy here is identical to her boyfriend, even down to the hair and clothing" – said Eri as she looked at Inuyasha, who had crossed his arms and was looking away.

- 'Goodness, what I'm supposed to do now?' – thought Kagome, but she then came up with an idea – "It's 'coz… well… I'm Kagome-nee's distant cousin…" -

- "Really?" – asked Yuka with a lot of curiosity.

- "Yeah... my name's..." – she said trying to remember the name everyone called her when she still had her memories sealed away – "Miko. And he's Shintaro; I think he's a relative of my cousin's boyfriend" -

- "What ya think you're..." – began Inuyasha, but he shut up when Kagome threw him an enraged glare that was telling him to keep quiet and play along her story.

- "Ah, I see. And are you going to stay here for long, Miko-chan?" – asked Eri.

- "Nah, I came to visit my cousin yesterday. I'll go back home tomorrow" – replied Kagome.

- "And where you're from?" – asked Ayumi.

- "Eh… we came from Kyoto…" – replied Kagome, already tired of the questioning.

- "Kyoto, huh? You had a really long trip coming here, right?" – asked Yuka.

- "Yup, it was very long" – said Kagome.

- "And where's your cousin? I don't remember seeing here since around five days ago" – said Yuka a bit intrigued.

- "I dunno. She told me she was going somewhere this morning, but that she'd be back in three days" – replied Kagome as she thought the whole situation could not be any weirder.

- "Ah well, I hope so. We were supposed to meet again in three days" – said Eri.

- "Okay then, we've got some errands to do, so we'll be going now. Be careful out there, and give my regards to Kagome!" – said Ayumi as she and the other two girls bid them farewell.

- "Okay, I'll do!" – said Kagome feigning cheerfulness. The girls then continued walking, and Kagome and Inuyasha continued looking at them until they disappeared from their sight. Kagome fell to her knees and sighed after this.

- "That was a close call..." – exclaimed Kagome in relief.

- "And why you gave me that ridiculous name?" – complained Inuyasha

- "Because I didn't have time to come up with any others!" – said Kagome. She then made the most threatening face she could – "Any other complaints, and you know what'll happen!" –

- "NO!" – screamed Inuyasha before the sole idea of getting sat down again. Luckily, Kagome calmed down after a few moments. She simply looked at him again with a smile and asked him:

- "Want to go eat something?" -

- "Yeah. I just don't want to eat that stuff that gets my tongue burning" – said Inuyasha as his mood improved a bit.

- "As you want," – said Kagome as she shrugged.

So they went to Wacdnalds and bought a hamburger for each. Unfortunately, Inuyasha's utter lack of table manners began resulting suspicious to everyone else…

- "This is tasty!" – said as he gobbled down the hamburger.

- "Hey, don't eat so messily!" – said Kagome to scold him – "Haven't you noticed everyone's staring at us?" -

Inuyasha took his eyes away from the hamburger, and it was at this point he noticed that everyone else in the place was looking at them in astonishment. Kagome blushed in embarrassment, and decided it was time for them to leave.

- "Come, Inuyasha. Let's go" – she said as she stood up from the table and began walking towards the door. However, she crashed into someone when she was reaching it because she turned around for a moment to see that Inuyasha was still taking his time finishing off the remains of the food.

- "Ah, sorry little one" – said the stranger.

- "Don't worry 'bout it" – said Kagome. However, when she raised her gaze, she noticed who it was: it was Hojo. The young man, who had short brown hair, black eyes and was wearing the black uniform typical of the male students at Kagome's school. Hojo then had the same reaction as her friends, and focused his eyes on her face.

- "Huh? Is that you, Higurashi?" – asked him.

Kagome was so frightened that her face paled instantly: her friends were one thing, but Hojo was another.

- "Who… are… you talking about… mister…?" – she asked as she wished that he didn't notice anything.

- "Ah sorry. I think I mistook you with a friend, as you look a lot like her. Her name's Kagome" – said Hojo as he put his hand behind his head as an awkward expression appeared on his face.

- "Err… well, I'm her cousin" – said Kagome, thinking there was no time she wanted to be back to normal more than right now.

- "Can you tell me your name?" – asked Hojo.

- "Ah… yeah. I'm Miko" – replied Kagome.

- "Okay, see you later then, Miko-chan. Tell Kagome I said hi!" – he said as he went away and approached the line to order.

- "Okay!" – she said as she saw Hojo going away. She sighed in relief.

- "Did anything happen, Kagome?" – asked Inuyasha when he finally came to her side.

- "No, it's nothing," – said Kagome.

They spent the rest of the afternoon walking around. They stopped briefly at the park, and though Inuyasha suggested playing in it for a while, Kagome thought it would feel awkward to her and decided against the idea, which made Inuyasha sigh in disappointment. When the sun began setting, they decided to go back home.

- "We're back!" – announced Kagome when they entered the house.

- "Hi, dear. Did you have a lot of fun?" – asked her mother.

- "Yep. There were some incidents out there, but nothing to worry about. So, what we're having for dinner?" – asked Kagome.

- "Wait and see" – she replied as she made them signs to go to the dining room.

When they entered the room, they were left gasping in astonishment, as the table was filled with all sorts of food.

- "Wow, it looks delicious!" – said Kagome with shining eyes. Inuyasha, for his part, was already drooling from just seeing the feast and smelling all the aromas that wafted from it.

- "Do you like it?" – asked Kagome's mother as she laughed a little upon seeing their faces.

- "Yeah, and I'm gonna start eating now!" – said Inuyasha as he sat down and began serving himself a bit of everything.

Dinner was very pleasant for them, particularly for Inuyasha, as he had seldom tasted food as tasty as that. After dinner, they all had eaten so much that they only wanted to go sleep.

- "I'll be going to bed…," – said Kagome after a large yawn.

- "Same here" – said Inuyasha with a sleepy face as he rubbed his eyes – "I'm beat" -

- "Okay. You both have everything ready to depart tomorrow?" – asked Kagome's mother.

- "Yeah. I'd like to stay for a while longer, but we've got to search for a way to get back to normal" – said Kagome.

- "Okay then, here you go," – said her mother as she gave to her the kosode. It was folded, looked like new, and it emitted a very nice aroma – "I washed and dried it the best I could, as I think you're going to continue wearing it until you're back to normal, right?" -

- "Yes, mom" – replied Kagome.

- "Have nice dreams, dear" – said her mother as she turned to go sleep, but she turned to look at Kagome – "Ah, almost forgot it. I've also left you a pajama over your bed" -

- "Thanks, mom. Good night" – said Kagome as she went to her room.

Once there, Kagome locked herself up in her room as she changed clothes, and once she was ready, she let Inuyasha in. The pajama her mother had left her was pink and was decorated with a few yellow stars.

- "And tomorrow we're going back there" – said Kagome after she turned lights off and was tucked in her bed.

- "Yeah. With some luck, the others will have found a way to null out the effects of that water" – said Inuyasha as he made himself comfortable beside Kagome's bed.

- "I hope so. I hope you sleep well" – wished Kagome.

- "Yeah, the same for you" – said Inuyasha, and then both stayed silent until they fell asleep.

The next morning, they had to prepare to go back, including eating breakfast, and thus they could not depart until the afternoon. After everything was ready, they finally went to the shack of the well to go back to the Warring-States Era.

- "And it's time to get going!" – said Kagome, who was wearing again the kosode and had once again styled her hair on the same way Sango did for her after she drank the water, the only difference being that she had it tied with a white bow now. She also was wearing the zori her mother bought her the previous day, which was a considerable improvement over how she was the previous days. However, she decided against wearing the tabi for now.

- "Let's not waste more time then! Let's go!" – said Inuyasha, impatient to know any information the others might have gathered.

- "Will you be okay?" – asked Souta.

- "Don't worry, Souta. The next time you see us, we'll be back to normal" – said Kagome as if it was to ensure it to him.

- 'That's what worries me. I was getting used to the idea of being the big brother here…' – he thought a bit depressed.

- "Be very careful out there, Kagome" – said her mother.

- "I'll be careful, mom. Don't worry" – said Kagome as she turned around and jumped into the well with Inuyasha at her side carrying her backpack.

- 'Maybe we won't find a way to get back to normal. However, we'll do everything we can to find it' – thought Kagome encouraged as they crossed the well's portal through a large flash of white light.

(End of Chapter)

(Ending: Every Heart)


	5. Searching for a Cure and Finding Trouble

Chapter 5:

Searching for a Cure and Finding Trouble

(Opening: One Day, One Dream)

Having spent a day on the present era, Kagome and Inuyasha went back to the Warring States Era to see if their friends had found a way to cure them of the effects of the water. Shortly after their return, they sat down to make plans for their journey.

- "Well, do you have any ideas on how to get us back to normal?" – asked Kagome.

- "Maybe. Kaede-sama told us that the water from the other spring in the cave could be the cure for you both" – replied Miroku.

- "Really?" – asked Kagome as her face lit up.

- "Yeah. We just need to go there again" – said Sango.

- "Great! Then let's get going at once!" – said Inuyasha as he got up, but he got whacked by Miroku's shakujou before he had even taken two steps.

- "Calm down, little beast. You should know that haste makes waste" – said as he made a gesture similar to the ones he would make for praying.

Inuyasha got Miroku's shakujou away from his head and glared at him as if he wanted to kill him.

- "Miroku, do that or say that again, and I'll make you pay" – he snarled.

- "He's right, Houshi-sama. You shouldn't tease him like this" – whispered Sango to him.

- "I can't wait to be back at my normal age!" – said Kagome, pretending that Miroku and Inuyasha weren't having a quarrel.

- "By the way, Kagome... you look a little different from the last time we saw you" – said Sango with interest.

- "Oh, it must be the zori I'm wearing and that now I have a white ribbon holding my hair in place" – she said as she pointed to her feet and then turned around to show Sango the ribbon.

- "Maybe it's that. Still, they suit you very well- Aggghhh!" – she suddenly screamed as her face turned red, scaring Kagome. She then turned in Miroku's direction and slapped him with all her strength – "Houshi-sama! How could you do that!?" -

- "That's true Miroku-sama" – said Kagome moving her pointer finger with a mischievous smile: she was acting just like a child would – "Looks like you're gonna never learn" -

- "I'm very sorry, Sango. I couldn't avoid it" – said Miroku with all the seriousness he could muster.

- "And be very careful with that, as if you ever dare to do something like that to Kagome, consider yourself dead" – said Inuyasha showing his overprotective side, but unfortunately, this only increased Sango's anger, which also spread to the others.

- "If he's still alive after I'm done with him!" – said Sango.

- "Or me!" – added Kagome.

- "And I'm next!" – said Shippou.

- "Eh... hehe... everyone..." – said Miroku laughing nervously as he stroked the palm mark Sango left on his face. Luckily for him, Sango calmed down shortly later.

- "Anyway, we'll set out tomorrow early. It's gotten pretty late already" – said Sango as she looked at the horizon: the sun was already setting and night has beginning to set in. So with nothing else to be added to the conversation, they went back to the village and spent the night in Kaede's hut.

The next morning was quite hectic, mainly because Inuyasha woke up with too much energy and couldn't wait until the others woke up.

- "Hey. Everyone, get up! The sun's high up already!" – he said trying to wake them up.

- "Ugh... you should let us sleep a little more..." – replied Kagome with a sleepy face.

- "You didn't want to return to normal?" – asked Inuyasha as he stared at her confused.

- "Yeah, but I also wanted to rest!" – she replied enraged.

- "Sometimes I can't understand you..." – said Inuyasha turning to look at one of the walls.

- "You're so stubborn..." – said Kagome.

- "And you're stupid!" – said Inuyasha

- "Sit down!" – screamed Kagome, and with Inuyasha's face-first fall to the floor, the argument came to an end.

- "You always have to do that!?" – said Inuyasha irritated as he trying to get back on his feet.

- "You should wait until we're up..." – said Sango groggily, but she instantly screamed and slapped Miroku, who was still asleep at her side.

- "Was there any need to wake me up like this, Sango!?" – said Miroku as he woke up scared.

- "Don't play innocent, Houshi-sama! You were being the pervert you always are!" – said an enraged Sango as she pointed to Miroku's right hand, which was located right behind her: apparently Miroku had already awakened since some minutes ago, but pretended to be asleep in order to stealthily grope her.

- "By Buddha's name, I have no idea about what you're talking about, Sango" – said Miroku.

- 'Liar...' – thought Shippou shortly after he woke up, stretching and yawning.

Breakfast wasn't any less tense, as Sango kept on throwing glares at Miroku every few seconds, while Kagome and Inuyasha seemed to be having a staring contest. Luckily, their mood improved when they finally set out for the valley.

- "Talking about a crazy morning" – commented Kagome as they walked through the hills filled with rocks in the way to their destination.

- "You still say it was my fault?" – replied Inuyasha angry, as Kagome insisted that he was who started the entire ruckus.

- "Want me to say that phrase it begins with "s" again?" – said Kagome to threaten him. Given this, Inuyasha had no other option than to simmer down.

- "Houshi-sama, you should learn a few things about how to behave from Inuyasha" – said Sango as she looked at both children.

- "But Sango, remember the curse that was put on my family…" – said Miroku in an attempt to excuse himself.

- "Which isn't gonna go away even if we defeat Naraku" – interrupted Shippou as he said in a very serious tone.

- "You would do better to keep your mouth shut, Shippou" – said Miroku irritated.

As that point, Inuyasha stopped for a moment to sniff the air: he had caught wind of a very unpleasant odor, which also was familiar to him...

- "Hold on. There's a nasty odor coming to us" – said he as he twisted his face because of how disgusting that odor was to him.

- "What kind of odor is it?" – asked Kagome.

- "It smells... like that rabid wolf" – snorted Inuyasha with rage.

- "What wolf...? No way... you mean Kouga?" – asked Kagome alarmed.

- "Yeah... but..." – Inuyasha didn't continue talking, and instead he just smirked. This was his chance to get rid of Kouga once for all so he wouldn't continue bothering him and Kagome.

- "Wait there! We can't let him see you two as you are now!" – said Sango as she looked around in search of a hiding place for her friends.

- "Keh!" – snorted Inuyasha with his typical bad attitude – "I don't care! This could have some perks that'd help me getting rid of him!" -

- "What you think isn't important right now, Inuyasha" – said Miroku to admonish him – "You should just go and hide with Kagome" -

- "They're right" – nodded Kagome. Inuyasha snorted again, but he had to go along with what they said.

They hided Kagome and Inuyasha behind a large rock they had near and put some distance between themselves and them. They finished doing it just in time, as shortly later a blue whirlwind appeared from the distance, and from it Kouga appeared: he was a young man with blue eyes and long black hair tied in a ponytail with pointed ears. He wore brown pieces of fur around his waist, legs, arms, and forehead; and the breastplate of a black and silver armor over his chest. He also had a sword tied to his waist, but it was quite in a bad state because he never seemed to use it.

- "Hiya" – he greeted them without minding them much, to then begin sniffing the air – "Kagome and the mutt are with you right now?" -

- "Um... no, they aren't here" – said Sango, to which Miroku and Shippou nodded. However, their little lie didn't work in the slightest.

- "Don't lie to me! I can smell these two very close to this place!" – screamed Kouga, though he next put on a face of suspicion – "But their odors feel a little weird this time…" -

- "Damn it! I can't stand that stupid wolf!" – groaned Inuyasha from their hideout.

- "Don't even think about going out there!" – said Kagome when she saw him unsheathing the Tessaiga and transforming it.

- "I don't care anymore!" – said Inuyasha as he jumped from behind the rock toward Kouga – "Did you call for me, rabid wolf!?" -

- "No!" – screamed Kagome.

- "What the hell...!?" – said Kouga, but he reacted quickly and avoided Inuyasha's attack – "Mutt, what's up with that size? Got shrunk from bathing in hot water?" -

- "That's none of your business, you shit!" – screamed Inuyasha as ran after him to attack him, irritated after how Kouga made a fool of him.

- "SIT DOWN!" – screamed Kagome from her hideout, making Inuyasha fall to the ground as his sword left his hand and got into the ground next to him, almost falling on his head. However, Kouga could see her as she did this, as she had peeked above the rock in order to scream at Inuyasha.

- "Kagome!?" – said Kouga when he saw her. It could be said that he only recognized her by her odor, as he would have never recognized her through her appearance despite her not looking very different from how she would be when she was seven years older.

- "Oh no!" – said Kagome trying to escape him, but Kouga was too fast for her. He ran right to where she was.

- "What happened? Was it because of something that stupid mutt did!?" – he asked as soon as he went up to her, and began looking at her with eyes of the size of plates.

- "No, Kouga… it's just…" – said Kagome to try explaining the situation.

- "Get away from Kagome, goddamn wolf!" – exclaimed Inuyasha in rage.

- "You're no one to give me orders, mutt!" – screamed Kouga to then turn again in Kagome's direction, lean a little to her, and hold both of her hands with his own – "Kagome, I just want you to know that no matter the appearance you have, you'll always be my mate" -

Generally, Kagome just smiled at Kouga nervously or didn't really mind his comments, but in this occasion, this offended her.

- "Are you out of your mind!? How can you even think of telling me that while I'm a child!?" – said her as she blushed and thought he had to be crazy to be saying that.

A cold wind began blowing through the hills, as they all were left speechless when they heard what Kouga and Kagome said.

- "And you were thinking I was bad, huh? Sango?" – said Miroku as soon as he could talk again.

- "I really don't know who's worse, Houshi-sama" – said Sango, which left Miroku petrified.

- "You should be ashamed, Kouga!" – said a voice from the distance, and shortly later, another whirlwind appeared. From it, a girl similar to Kouga, but with red hair in twintails and wearing silver furs and a red armor breastplate appeared. It was Ayame: Kouga's fiancée.

- "You're Kagome, right?" – she asked as soon as she came up to Kagome's and Kouga's sie.

- "Eh... yeah, it's me" – replied Kagome a bit embarrassed.

- "I see you had a change in appearance... how old are you now?" – asked Ayame as she leaned toward her so their faces would be at the same height, as she gave her a smile.

- "I think I'm eight years old right now" – replied Kagome.

Upon hearing that, Ayame straightened up and looked at Kouga with fury.

- "How can you say such things to a little girl like her, Kouga!?" – screamed Ayame.

- "Don't mention that, Ayame!" – said Kouga in a very bad mood – "Did you forget that I made that promise to you when you were her same age?" -

That last thing was a slip of the tongue for Kouga, so he covered his mouth immediately in shock when he finished saying it, but it was too late because everyone else had heard it. Everyone was left petrified, as another cold breeze blew throughout the hills.

- "Wolf... you've just dug out your own grave" – commented Inuyasha – "Weren't you saying that you didn't remember anything like that?" -

- "Yes, and he's now bound to keep it. After all, said promise is far older than the compromise he wants to force Kagome into" – said Miroku, and upon hearing these words, Kouga comically turned into stone and broke into pieces.

- "Will you keep your promise now?" – asked Ayame overjoyed as she took the hands of her shocked fiancé – "Now we know you never really forgot about it?" -

- "Forget it!" – said Kouga stubbornly – "My mate's gonna be Kagome!" -

Both Kagome and Ayame were really angry about this, as no one was expecting Kouga to be so stubborn.

- "Too bad the necklace and its spell only have effect over Inuyasha, because if I could, I'd be using it on you Kouga!" – screamed Kagome enraged

- "You can't tell a little girl that she'll be your mate, especially after you promised marrying me! Stupid!" – screamed Ayame. She then smacked Kouga on the head so hard that she left him unconscious. She then picked him up and saddled him on her back.

- "She's scary strong…" – said Shippou scared.

- "That's what happens when you make a girl angry" – said Sango with a serious face.

- "Okay, see you all later" – said Ayame as she walked away from the others and turned around to bid them farewell. She then moved her head in Kagome and Inuyasha's direction - "Kagome, Inuyasha, take care until you're back to normal, okay?" -

- "Okay, and thanks!" – said Kagome with a smile.

- "Keh!" – snorted Inuyasha as Ayame enshrouded herself in a whirlwind with Kouga and her back, and she began going away from them at a great speed.

- "And we should get going too" – said Sango, and as they nodded in response, they continued walking.

At noon, they decided to stop toe at some lunch, so Sango got up a blanket and some food from Kagome's backpack and set it out over the grass. It really looked like they were having a picnic.

- "So, what do you want to eat?" – asked Kagome.

- "I want some of that instant ramen soup" – replied Inuyasha.

- "Don't you get bored of eating that all the time?" – asked Kagome a bit surprised.

- "No, why?" – said Inuyasha as he looked at her dumbfounded.

Kagome just sighed as she went back to her backpack, now set on the ground next to the blanket where they were all sitting.

- "No, it's nothing" – she replied at last – "It's just I had brought here other stuff to have some variety in what we ate" -

- "Like?" – asked Shippou with interest.

- "Some fruit and grains. They were all ideas mom gave me, so if you like, you can check them out" – said Kagome as she signaled to her backpack.

They had a very pleasant lunch, particularly thanks to the fruit juices Kagome had prepared with the help of her mother and brought for everyone. However, shortly after they had finished eating, and were sitting around digesting the food before continuing their trip to the valley, they felt…

- "I feel a presence. And it's approaching us!" – announced Miroku, which put him and all the others in alert.

- "Is it some kind of monster?" – asked Sango as she readied for fighting.

- "No, I can feel it too," – said Kagome – "I feel it's familiar, but I can't say yet who or what it is" -

- "I think I know who that's..." – said Inuyasha with an undecipherable expression.

- "Are you serious?" – asked Shippou.

- "Yeah, but this isn't a good time for it to show up..." – said Inuyasha as he gritted his teeth and thought – "Damn, why!? Why she had to come here right now!?" -

- "Why? Who is it?" – asked Kagome, which brought him out of his thoughts.

- "I can only say it smells of soil and corpses..." – said Inuyasha with an expression that clearly meant they were better off not knowing it. The others just got spooked when he finished saying these words.

- "Wait a sec... you don't mean...?" – began Kagome, but Sango and Miroku finished the sentence for her.

- "Kikyou!?" -

- "Yeah, it's her!" – said Inuyasha very flustered – "We gotta hide at once!" -

However, Kagome was enraged from the way Inuyasha was acting...

- "Why?" – she told him in a sour voice – "Is meeting your beloved Kikyou like this so embarrassing to you?" -

- "Leave jealousy aside for a while, idiot!" – said Inuyasha – "I'm worried about what she could do to you while we're like this! Or aren't you thinking straight anymore?" -

- 'Inuyasha now worries about me more than he wants to see Kikyou?' – thought Kagome astonished.

- "There's a cave in the hill below us!" – said Sango pointing to the ground with her finger – "Hurry up and go hide there!" -

Kagome and Inuyasha ran off and entered the cave. It was a good thing they did it so quicly, as a few minutes later, Kikyou appeared and walked toward the place where Miroku, Sango and Shippou still were, accompanied by her two Shikigami: Kochou and Asuka. Both had the appearance of young girls a little older than Kagome was at the moment, with Kochou wearing a yellow long kimono and Asuka wearing a blue one, both with brown eyes and black hair. Kikyou herself on the other hand wore a traditional miko outfit, and had the same hair and eye colors as Kagome, and in fact, it could be said that she looked extremely similar to her when she was in her normal form. However, Kikyou also appeared to be shrouded in a strange black aura this time around, which was completely unnatural to her typical appearance.

- "Inuyasha's friends… huh?" – said Kikyou when she was came close enough to talk to them.

- "Why did you come here, Kikyou?" – asked Sango cautiously.

- "Our paths happened to cross, that is all. However, I must admit that I felt Inuyasha was around the area and I wanted to see him…" – she then looked around, and upon noticing that two people were missing – "And how is it that neither Inuyasha nor Kagome are with you now?" -

- "It's because they went to investigate a rumor we heard about Naraku…" – said Miroku, but Kikyou noticed it wasn't true.

- "Bonzo, I can see you're lying from the way you're looking at me when you say that. Now tell me where they are, or I'll have to summon them here" -

- "Kikyou-sama, their presence can be felt very close to us" – said Kochou with a voice so soft that it barely could be heard.

- "No way!" – said Sango – "They went to a very faraway place from us!" -

But it was obvious that Kikyou could feel they were very close to their current location, so it was impossible to deceive her to keep her from finding Kagome and Inuyasha.

- "As you don't want to be honest, you leave me with no other choice…" – she then turned to one of her Shikigami - "Asuka!" -

- "Yes, Kikyou-sama…" – said her as she and Kochou went closer to Kikyou.

- "What're you planning to do?" – said Shippou, but Kikyou didn't bother replying: she had begun casting a spell alongside her Shikigami, and as soon as she was finished, a few spheres of white light came out from her, flew over to the cave where Inuyasha and Kagome were hiding.

- "What's this!?" – said Inuyasha shocked.

- "I think this is Kikyou's doing!" – said Kagome upon noticing they were emitting a great deal of spiritual energy. The lights then surrounded them and began pulling them to the outside.

- "Dammit! I don't wanna go!" – said Inuyasha, grabbing as hard as he could to one of the rocks in the cave with one hand.

- "I don't want it either!" - said Kagome as she grabbed to Inuyasha's other hand. However, the strength of the spell was more than what she could stand, and it ended pulling her out – "Inuyasha!" -

- "Kagome!" – screamed Inuyasha as he tried to reach her, but he couldn't do so, as he also had to keep from getting pulled out himself.

Meanwhile, Kagome was dragged over to Kikyou's place by the spell.

- "Who is this child supposed to be?" – said her as she looked at Kagome with annoyance – "Did I fail at casting this spell?" -

It was then that Kikyou's eyes focused on the bow and quiver Kagome was carrying on her back, and when she could stand up again once the spell nullified itself, Kikyou grabbed her by the face and began examining her in detail.

- 'Kaede!? No, impossible...' – thought Kikyou, but she noticed who it was when she began feeling her energy – "This energy… it's unmistakable, but… how can this girl be Kagome?" -

- "Damn, she figured it out!" – said Miroku. He and the others stayed immobile while Kikyou examined Kagome so they wouldn't raise suspicions by trying to help her. However, as soon as Kikyou realized who she was, they ran over to them to try rescuing Kagome, but they were bounced back before they could reach them.

- "A barrier!?" – said Miroku as he hit it with his shakujou.

- "We won't be able to help Kagome like this!" – said Sango as she stuck her Hiraikotsu on the ground with rage.

- "Kagome!" – screamed Shippou. The next instant, the inside of the barrier was enshrouded by something similar to a white mist, making them unable to see what happened.

Inside of it, Kikyou was keeping Kagome immobilized with her shinidamachuu, keeping her from using her powers or escaping.

- "How interesting…" – said Kikyou as she walked in front of Kagome and then turned to face her – "Dear Kagome, you were already young and meddling enough when we met for the first time, and now it turned out to be that you have been reduced to half your true age" -

- "Leave me alone, Kikyou!" – screamed Kagome as she struggled against the creatures, but she couldn't do much against them.

- "Maybe I should just get rid of you at once now I have the chance..." – said Kikyou with an evil smile, ignoring Kagome's grunts as she tried to break herself free – "That way there won't be any hindrances between Inuyasha and I… and I'll be free to take him to hell with me…" -

- "How can you be so ungrateful!?" – said Kagome as she looked at the ground: she was beating herself up over having saved Kikyou's life after the events that took place at Mount Hakurei – "After what I did for you that time…" -

- "Shut up!" – screamed Kikyou, cutting off what Kagome was saying – "I never asked for your help that time! You just helped me on your own! ...And anyway, I already paid you back with the arrow I gave Inuyasha for you!" -

At that moment, the barrier opened briefly to allow Inuyasha enter as he was being dragged off to Kikyou's side by the spell, right as Kikyou was rising her bow and was readying an arrow.

- "Kikyou, what do you think you're doing to Kagome?" – he said as he looked at her with eyes filled with bitterness and sadness.

- "Inuyasha? You too...?" – said Kikyou surprised, but she then smiled at him as she rested her chin on one of her hands – "You look so cute like this…" -

- "I don't know what's happening to you now, Kikyou... but if you continue trying to kill a defenseless kid like this, I'll have to destroy you…" - said Inuyasha as he unsheathed Tessaiga and transformed it so Kikyou would understand he was serious. At that point, the strange aura that was surrounding Kikyou vanished away, and as if she regained her senses, the pupils on her eyes opened up further: it seemed like she had been under the control of someone else, yet still kept her consciousness.

- "Inuyasha, so you care more about Kagome than me..." – said Kikyou in a sad voice as she turned away and raised her hand to order her shinidamachuu to release Kagome and set her down gently over the grass. She then turned to face Inuyasha a last time – "I'll wait until you're back to normal and you have settled all issues you still have pending…" –

She then turned to Kagome – "I apologize for everything that happened today, Kagome… I think my negative emotions took hold over me, and I acted without making use of reason… I'm sorry…" -

She then dissolved the barrier and walked away in silence as her Shikigami followed her, leaving everyone stunned and wondering what happened.

- 'Incredible, Inuyasha chose me... and he even threatened Kikyou with eliminating her if she didn't leave me alone!' – thought Kagome amazed, but then her thoughts took a darker turn – 'But… what could be powerful enough to force someone with such a strong will to act like that…?' -

- "Come on, let's get back on track and head for the valley" – said Inuyasha as sheathed his sword again and began walking.

- "Yeah!" – replied Kagome cheerfully as she followed Inuyasha

- "Any idea about what might have happened in there?" – whispered Miroku to Sango.

- "No at all, Houshi-sama…" – replied Sango.

- "And you think I can't hear you, huh?" – asked Inuyasha sourly.

- "Sorry..." – said Sango embarrassed.

Meanwhile, Kikyou continued walking through the hills, with a destination only known to her.

- 'That girl looked not only like me, but also like Kaede when she was a child, how can that be possible?' – thought Kikyou astonished.

- "Are you okay, Kikyou-sama?" – asked Kochou.

- "You seem worried about something…" – said Asuka.

- "Don't mind me, I'm fine" – replied Kikyou, but she then sank into her thoughts – 'However, that strange aura that took control of my emotions… what could it have been? I have the feeling that something ominous is going to take place in this world… and not even I know what will happen from now on…'

As for Inuyasha and the others, they continued walking, and when they reached a point in which the hills gave way to a large plain, they noticed someone else at the distance was walking in their direction.

- "Who do you think it is?" – asked Kagome as she tried to see who it was.

- "I dunno. I can't really tell it by their odor or appearance from here" – said Inuyasha as he sniffed to try getting the odor of the stranger, but it was in vain.

- "Well, we'll be able to tell it if we use this" – said Miroku as he took out the binoculars from Kagome's backpack.

- "That's a nice idea, Miroku-sama!" – said Kagome clapping excitedly.

- "It's weird that comes up with some good ideas that don't include scamming people or womanizing" – said Inuyasha as he made a surprised face.

- 'That comment was unnecessary, Inuyasha' – thought Miroku as he looked through the binoculars, but he was so spooked when he saw who it was that he almost fainted.

- "Houshi-sama, what happened?" – said Sango when she saw Miroku's shocked state.

- "It's..." – said Miroku, now as pale as a ghost – "It's… Sesshomaru!" -

- "What!? Can we even have such a bad luck!?" – asked Kagome scared.

- "This is absurd! First the rabid wolf, then Kikyou, and now this!?" – said Inuyasha as clenched his hand into a fist – "Well, I'm not gonna hide this time!" -

And he ran off to encounter Sesshomaru.

- "Inuyasha, hold it there!" – said Sango as she futilely tried to stop him.

- "He's the biggest dork ever!" – said Shippou as they ran after him.

Sesshomaru was standing near the border of a nearby forest looking at the sky. He had the appearance of a tall young man with long silver hair, golden eyes, pointy ears, and was dressed in a fine white kimono decorated with detailed and delicate red and purple patterns, which also had an armor worn over it. He wore black shoes and had two swords tied to his hip: one sheathed in a scabbard, and the other without any sort of protection.

Next to him, there was a young girl very similar to Kagome as she was currently called Rin, who had a ponytail on the side of her brown hair, brown eyes, and wore a checkered yellow and white kosode, but no footwear; a toad-like green creature with yellow eyes called Jaken, who wore a brown Shinto priest garb; and a large brown two-headed dragon-like creature called Ah-Un. Rin was playing around with the flowers in the ground while Jaken was watching over Ah-Un, which was lying peacefully over the grass.

- 'The air reeks of that useless bum Inuyasha… however, it smells differently from usual' – thought Sesshomaru.

- "Uh, what is it, Sesshomaru-sama?" – asked Jaken.

- "Sesshomaru-sama, are you okay?" – asked Rin.

- "Jaken, go away from this place and take Rin with you..." – said Sesshomaru in his typical emotionless voice.

Jaken sniffed the air, and he immediately understood why he was given that order.

- "Oh, I see what you mean, sir…" -

Meanwhile, Inuyasha continued running toward Sesshomaru.

- 'This will be it! Today I'll wipe off the superiority complex from that idiot Sesshomaru at long last!' – thought excitedly, and when he felt he was close enough, he unsheathed and transformed Tessaiga, and jumped to strike Sesshomaru from above.

- "Sesshomaru! I've come for you!" – screamed Inuyasha as he fell.

- "What...?" – muttered Sesshomaru as he looked up – 'Inuyasha?' –

Unfortunately for Inuyasha, his attack failed because Sesshomaru immediately unsheathed one of his swords: Tokijin, and parried the strike.

- "I always thought you were stupid..." – said Sesshomaru as they both had their blades locked – "But I never imagined you would be it to the extent of trying to attack me while in that shape…" -

- "Shut your trap!" – screamed Inuyasha as he got back a bit and tried to slash him again, but Sesshomaru blocked him.

- "You are not just an insignificant hanyou now, but also a child! You are even more pathetic than before! Don't even think I'll have mercy with you for that mere appearance change!" – said Sesshomaru as they both separated and both prepared to attack again.

- "I'm fine with that! Kaze no Kizu!" – he screamed as he swung Tessaiga to launch the energy waves, but Sesshomaru avoided them.

- "So you came prepared to die, I see... I'll grant your wish then…" – said Sesshomaru as he pointed to him with Tokijin. He launched an energy wave to Inuyasha, which struck him directly on the chest. Inuyasha tumbled into the ground, but he recovered and stood back up very quickly.

- "Damn you! I'll make you pay for that!" – screamed Inuyasha as he enshrouded his sword in crystal – "Kongousouha!" -

He launched a hail of diamonds to Sesshomaru, and even though it was direct hit, it didn't show any signs of having caused damage to him, as Sesshomaru wiped the diamonds off from himself as if they were mere dirt.

- "I see you have progressed from our last encounter, but this will be your end!" – he said as he put his sword in horizontal position and an electrical current ran through it – "Souryuuhaa!" -

He launched at Inuyasha a large dragon-shaped blue beam of electricity, but Inuyasha just smiled in response.

- "Thanks, Sesshomaru! I never guessed you'd help me to tear you apart!" – said Inuyasha as he swung his sword with force – "Bakuryuuha!" -

He launched an energy wave from Tessaiga that fused with part of the dragon beam, forming a whirlwind that clashed with the remainder of the Souryuuha, until they both disappeared: they both nulled each other out.

- "Looks like our powers are at about the same level, huh? Don't you think, Sesshomaru?" – commented Inuyasha with a sarcastic smirk.

- "Never dare to compare yourself with me! I admit that your power has increased despite you being now an insignificant brat, but you will never be more than a hanyou! Nothing gives you the right to compare with me or my father!" – said Sesshomaru enraged. The fact that Inuyasha had said that simple phrase made him furious as rarely anyone had even seen him, as his eyes had a red shade to them, which always was an indication of him being about to transform into his true shape: a gigantic demon dog.

The rest of Inuyasha's group came in shortly later, with Kagome in the lead.

- "Inuyasha! Stop!" – she screamed at the distance, making Sesshomaru focus on her.

- "So the same thing that happened to you happened to that woman as well," – he said as he made an evil smile, as a black aura surrounded him – "This is going to be interesting…" -

Sesshomaru stuck Tokijin in the ground, ran over to Kagome, and before anyone could do anything... he took her by the neck, raised her, and began strangling her.

- "Let me go...! I can't... breathe!" – screamed Kagome as she struggled trying to get herself free from Sesshomaru's grip.

Upon seeing this, Inuyasha ran to where they were to sabe Kagome, but...

- "Leave her alone, you bastard!" – screamed Inuyasha.

- "Useless fool..." – said Sesshomaru simply, as he showed he had a monster claw where his left arm used to be and used it to grab Inuyasha by the neck, making Tessaiga slide away from his hands and fall to the ground. Inuyasha tried to release himself from Sesshomaru's claw, even trying to plunge his own claws and fangs into it, but he couldn't do anything.

- "Damn you... let me go! Sankontessou!" – he screamed as he trying to scratch him with his claws enshrouded in a golden aura, but it had no effect: the claw Sesshomaru was using to keep him trapped was in fact a dragon one.

- "Kagome..." – muttered Inuyasha bitterly. The color was beginning to fade from Kagome's face and she was about to lose consciousness from the lack of air, so Inuyasha plunged his claws on the palms of his hands, covering them in his own blood.

- "Hijinkessou!" – screamed as he slashed at the air in the direction of the hand Sesshomaru was using to strangle Kagome, launching a rain of crimson waves at it, but it had no effect: Sesshomaru didn't even flinch at this – "Damn you… leave her alone…"

- "I won't let her go until you both are dead" – said Sesshomaru – "It's the most suitable for you both to end your days together…"

At that point, Sango, Miroku and Shippou finally came up to them, and they were horrified upon seeing the scene.

- "Sesshomaru, leave them alone!" – screamed Sango as she readied her Hiraikotsu.

- "How can you!?" – said Shippou.

- "Release them!" – ordered Miroku.

Sesshomaru just ignored everything they said. However, when the three of them tried to run to up to him to do something, Sesshomaru looked at them:

- "Don't even think about getting any closer! If you take even one more step, I'll squeeze their necks so tightly that their heads will come out from their bodies" –

- "Damn it!" – said Sango as she stuck her Hiraikotsu on the ground. Neither her nor the others could do anything to avoid it, so Sesshomaru continued enjoying the view of his victims trying to get themselves free and breathe, as well as Inuyasha's attempts to attack him. However, he focused his gaze on Kagome.

- "This brat... she looks so much like Rin! How is this possible?" – thought Sesshomaru as he saw how she was choking out on his hand, but he then turned around and saw how Rin was seeing everything from behind a tree, with a terrified expression on her face.

- 'Sesshomaru-sama, how can you treat children like this?' – thought Rin as she looked at him.

- 'Rin...' – he thought when he saw her, and immediately, the black aura surrounding him disolved and he released his grip on Inuyasha and Kagome, making them fall to the ground.

- "You both are lucky. If it wasn't because I would dishonor myself and my father if I killed you both as children, you both would be dead by now" – said Sesshomaru. He simply refused to admit that he let his rage get the best of him and that was just about to commit an act he would have never dared to after Rin began traveling with him.

Inuyasha and Kagome began caressing their necks to soften the pain and let the air flow back into their lungs. After a few instants, Inuyasha stood up again, picked Tessaiga back up and sheathed it, but when he went back to Kagome to check how she was, he found her staring blankly at the distance, and after a while…

- "Where I'm, and who's that man?" – she asked as she pointed to Sesshomaru.

- "What?" – said Inuyasha confused, like the others. However, they soon noticed that her memory medallion wasn't around her neck: the silver medallion was instead in the ground near her feet.

- "Ka..." – began Inuyasha, but Sango put a hand over his shoulder.

- "Inuyasha, remember how you have to call her when she doesn't have the medallion on" – whispered Sango.

- "Okay..." – Inuyasha breathed in deeply and sighed – "Miko, are you okay?" –

- "Yeah, Inuyasha, but… who's that man?" – she said with a smile upon seeing Inuyasha.

- "He's Sesshomaru. He's my older half-brother, and unlike me, he's a full youkai" – explained Inuyasha – "You're better off being away from him: he hates humans"

- "Got it" – said Miko – "But, who's that girl?" -

Inuyasha noticed she was talking about Rin because she was facing in her direction.

- "You'll find out by yourself" – replied Inuyasha as Rin was walking up to them.

- "By the way, Inuyasha, where did these zori come from?" – said Miko looking at her feet in amazement, as she didn't remember wearing these before – "I'm just a peasant girl, so I shouldn't…" –

- "Nah, don't worry about it" – said Inuyasha as he tried to come up with an excuse – "Kaede-obaasan managed to get some and bought them for you 'coz you were doing so well in your miko training" –

- "Hehe, it's a bit embarrassing, but I wanna thank her for caring so much for me" – said Miko as she blushed and smiled.

- "Rin… stay here. I must attend to other matters…" – ordered Sesshomaru.

- "Okay…" – nodded Rin while Sesshomaru walked away from them.

On the other hand, Miroku and Sango had picked up the medallion while Miko was talking with the others, and examined it.

- "Looks like Sesshomaru's claws cut the string that kept the medallion around Kagome's neck" – whispered Miroku to Sango, showing the part where the string seemed to have gotten cut of in rather less-than-smooth way.

- "But I think we can fix it. There are lots of pieces of string and rope in her backpack we can use to repair it" – replied Sango.

And as they discussed this and began working on fixing the string, Rin was sitting over the grass talking with Miko and Inuyasha…

- "You're Rin, and you're Sesshomaru's attendant" – asked Miko.

- "Yep!" – replied Rin smiling – "and you're Miko?" –

- "Yeah. At least that's the name they told me I had" – replied Miko a bit embarrassed.

- "And you're Inuyasha, Sesshomaru-sama's little brother?" – asked Rin.

- "That's right" – replied Inuyasha. He then eyed both girls as he thought – 'How could I be so stupid that I didn't notice it before! This kid is too similar to Kagome: her hair, her face... even their personalities are alike! Though they aren't completely identical in appearance...' -

- "How weird... I remember you were..." – began Rin, but Inuyasha covered her mouth with the hand and took her away, leaving Miko alone and looking at them weirded out. He then let her go to tell her something.

- "Look, Rin. You know I was older than I look now, but until Kagome's wearing her medallion again, we can't do or say anything that bring memories back to her, or she'll go crazy. And that includes telling her anything about her or me" – explained Inuyasha.

- "Okay..." – said Rin – "Then, Miko-chan's actually Kagome-sama?" -

- "Yeah, but we have to call her Miko until she's wearing the medallion again" – said Inuyasha. With topic cleared up, they walked back to where Miko was waiting for them.

- "What were you doing?" – asked Miko pouting a little – "It wasn't nice to leave me alone!" -

- "It's nothing, Miko" – replied Inuyasha a bit scared, and he then had an idea – "Hey, do you wanna play something?" -

- "Yeah!" – said Miko as she stood up energetically – "I'm kinda wanting to play with a ball!" -

- "Okay! Shippou, bring here the ball in the backpack!" – screamed Inuyasha.

- "Okay, coming!" – replied Shippou, so he went to the backpack, got the ball out, and then he, Inuyasha, Miko and Rin began playing to pass the ball to each other. They spent a good while playing like this together, laughing and enjoying, until…

- "I think we're done..." – said Miroku after a while as he wiped off the sweat from his forehead – "Miko, come here please!" -

- "Aww... I'm coming, Houshi-sama!" – said Miko disappointed. Obviously, she didn't want to stop playing, but since she wanted to be a good girl, she went to where Miroku and Sango were while the others waited to see why they had called her.

- "Here you go, put in it on" – said Sango with a smile as she showed it to her once Miko got to them – "Remember it? It's your medallion"

- "Yup, it's what I've gotta wear to regain my memories. I don't know how I lost it in the first place" – she said a bit confused, but she changed her expression to a pleased smile when she took it from Sango's hand and put it on again. Her eyes blinked for a couple of instants, and her smile only got wider after it.

- "And I'm back again" – said Miko.

- "Kagome?" – asked Sango.

- "Yup. And excuse me, I think I'll go back to play with them for now!" – said her as she cheerfully ran back to the others.

- "That was unexpected" – said Miroku as they looked at Kagome running back to the others.

- "Agreed, Houshi-sama" – said Snago.

They just kept on watching over as the children continued playing, and after a while, Kagome began teaching the others how the play volleyball. They continued playing until Sesshomaru came back, which made them all stop and look at him with apprehension.

- "Rin… It is time for us to depart" – he said without bothering to look at the others.

- "Okay!" – said Rin, and she then turned to the others – "See you all later! Good luck!" -

She then ran to Sesshomaru's side. Sesshomaru noticed that Jaken had fallen asleep on the trees at the border of the forest, not minding what happened to Rin, so Sesshomaru punched him on the head as punishment for not taking care of his duties. The three of them they continued their way, while Inuyasha and his friends went in the opposite direction to continue heading to the valley.

- "Well, did you have fun?" – asked Miroku.

- "Yeah, even though I had to act a bit so Kagome wouldn't notice anything while she wasn't wearing her medallion" – replied Inuyasha as he put his head over his arms, which he had crossed behind himself.

- "I guessed as much, and thanks for that, Inuyasha" – said Kagome, which made Inuyasha blush.

- "But I didn't think you'd want to continue playing with us after you remembered everything" – told Shippou to Kagome.

- "Well, it's been a lot of time since I last played like this. And besides, my mom told me it'd be better for me if I enjoyed this instead of thinking of it as a torment" – explained Kagome – "I had to begin behaving like the age I have right now instead of behaving like my true age" -

- "Good decision" – smiled Sango.

- "And who would've thought my cruel and cold half-brother had a heart" – commented Inuyasha as he raised his gaze to the clear sky.

- "Yeah, he acts as if she wasn't anything for him, but he spared us just because he didn't want Rin to get scared of him, and so she'd have playmates for a while…" – said Kagome as she thought of the reason Sesshomaru had to refrain from killing them – "But… didn't you all notice he also had something like a black aura around him?" -

- "Now you mention it..." – said Inuyasha thoughtfully – "You're right. Kikyou had something like that around her too…"

- "Do you think there's some connection between that and the cruel way in which they were acting?" – asked Kagome to the others.

- "It's a possibility, but I'm afraid we don't have a way of knowing it" – replied Miroku as he closed his eyes – "However, I must add that these strange auras also emitted, though slightly, a kind of evil I've never felt before" -

- "Then it wasn't Naraku's work, Houshi-sama?" – asked Sango surprised.

- "It wasn't. Kikyou's and Sesshomaru's odors were the same as always, except that I could feel a horrendous demonic power around them" – replied Inuyasha as he crossed his arms and covered his hands with the sleeves of his clothes.

- "I wonder what that means for us..." – asked Kagome worried.

- "Let's worry about that later," – said Sango as she put a hand on her friend's shoulder with a comforting expression on her face - "For now, we should focus in getting you two back to normal" -

They all nodded in agreement, and continued their walking. After a few more minutes, they reached the valley, and when they were about to enter the cave…

- "And we're just at a few steps of going back to normal" – smiled Inuyasha as he looked at the cave's entrance.

- "Right! I've enjoyed a lot being a child again, but I can't wait to go back to my true age!" – said Kagome.

- "Too bad you won't live enough to reach these springs!" – screamed an unpleasant voice, and instantly, the sky turned dark and their mortal enemy, Naraku, appeared surrounded by his barrier, and accompanied by his saimyoushou, and his extensions Hakudoushi, Kagura, and Kanna, as well Sango's younger brother Kohaku.

Naraku had the appearance of a tall young man with black hair and red eyes, and wore a blue long jacket with a black and purple kimono underneath, which had over it pieces of a silver armor that looked as if it was made from bones, which had a yellow and red eye over the central part of what would be the breastplate, a yellow sash, black boots, and had several green tentacles coming out from behind himself.

Hakudoushi appeared like a child a bit younger than Inuyasha and Kagome, and wore a completely white Shinto priest-like outfit, had light pink hair and eyes, and carried a large naginata.

Kagura was a tall young woman with short black hair, part of it on a side ponytail, red eyes and wearing an elaborate kimono that had a white and magenta outer part and an exposed inner blue part that was kept closed by a long yellow obi. She also carried a little white and magenta fan on her hands.

Kanna was a young girl that had white hair, wore a white kosode and white zori, as well as white flowers on her hair, and had black eyes, which had a perpetually blank stare. She carried a small mirror on her hands whose border was white too.

Finally, Kohaku was a young boy of around eleven years in age that had short brown hair, brown eyes, and wore an exterminator outfit similar to Sango's, though his' had green parts where Sango had pink. He carried a small bone scythe with chain as his weapon.

- "Oh, how marvelous!" It isn't another puppet, but Naraku himself on the flesh!" said Miroku with evident sarcasm and disdain as he looked at Naraku with rage and repugnance – "You lost that habit after the events that transpired at Mount Hakurei!?" -

- "Do you want to die sooner, bonzo?" – asked Naraku irritated, having taken Miroku's words as an insult.

- "Naraku, you're a goddamn pest!" – screamed Inuyasha – "Always attacking when your opponents are in the worst shape possible!" -

- "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I would mind my tongue if I were you, Inuyasha" – said Naraku to mock him – "You don't want to get grounded and spanked for that, do you?" -

- "Shut your damn trap! Looking like this means nothing; as I'm gonna rip you to shreds all the same!" – said him as he whipped Tessaiga out.

- "You're no more than a coward!" – screamed Kagome as she readied her bow and arrow.

- "How weird... I was sure you couldn't remember anything" – said Naraku a bit surprised.

- "You were wrong! And now I'll make sure you never forget your mistake!" – screamed Kagome as she shot a Sacred Arrow at him, which was blocked by Naraku's barrier

- "What a surprise. So you can still use your powers" – said Naraku through his teeth – "And apparently the shard of Kanna's mirror I sent you didn't do nearly as much as I expected" -

- "So it was you! You tried to drive them both to madness!" – screamed Miroku enraged, which also infuriated all of them.

- "Mwahaha, exactly" – nodded Naraku with an evil smile – "But I don't care about that scheme being a failure, as I'll make this place your grave!" -

On the other hand... Sango was fighting with Kohaku, who was forcing himself to fight so Naraku didn't notice he already had regained his memories, as they could kill him instantly by removing the Shikon shard he had on his back.

- "Kohaku! Please, snap out of it!" – said Sango to call out to him desperately.

- "Onee-san... I'm sorry... but I've got to keep feigning for a bit longer" – thought Kohaku saddened as he continued avoiding Sango's half-hearted attacks.

- "Kohaku, please! I don't want to harm you!" – said Sango.

Back with the others, the battle didn't really seem to be going in their favor…

- "Aaaah! We're gonna die!" – cried Shippou.

- "Calm down, Shippou! We've gotten out of worse situations!" – said Miroku.

- "But none as dire as this one" – said Hakudoushi as he attacked them with his naginata, so Miroku had to parry his slashes with his shakujou.

- "You fight as dirty as your creator!" – said Miroku gritting his teeth.

- "Thanks for the compliment" – said Hakudoushi as he smiled evilly.

- "Miroku, what you think you're doing?" – screamed Inuyasha – "Let me take care of this! Get back!" -

- "Right!" – said Miroku as he stepped aside.

- "Kongousouha!" – screamed Inuyasha as he launched a storm of diamonds to Hakudoushi. He tried to put a barrier to block the attack, but as his barriers weren't yet as strong as Naraku's, the diamond lances broke it and gravely injured him, so he had no choice but to retreat.

- "I'm astonished. Who'd imagine they'd defeat Hakudoushi" – said Kagura.

- "And he isn't the only one who'll get defeated here, Kagura!" – said Kagome as she prepared to shoot an arrow at her, but… - "What's… happening to me…? I'm feeling… weaker…" -

She felt something strange from behind herself and it was then that she noticed what it was: Kanna was trying to extract her soul with her mirror.

- "You will die now..." – said Kanna in an emotionless whisper.

- "I don't think so...!" – screamed Kagome as she used the little strength she had remaining to shoot a Sacred Arrow to the mirror, which absorbed it. However, given the great amount of spiritual energy always put in her arrows, the mirror couldn't continue bearing it and cracked, forcing all the parts of Kagome's soul it had absorbed back out. They then returned to her body and she regained her strength.

- "I should retreat now..." – said Kanna as she looked blankly at her mirror.

- "You won't get away!" – screamed Kagome as she shot another arrow, but Kanna merely vanished before the arrow had struck her.

- "This sucks!" – said Kagome.

- "Forget about her! We've got worse troubles to deal with now!" – screamed Inuyasha and with good reason: he had to keep avoiding Naraku's tentacles and energy blasts as well as Kagura's wind-based attacks, and if it wasn't by his small size, most likely he wouldn't have managed to do so.

- "Wait there! I'm going now!" – said Kagome as she ran to his side.

- "Are we practicing dance moves now, Inuyasha?" – laughed Naraku upon seeing the acrobatics Inuyasha was forced to make to avoid the attacks.

- "Shut your damn mouth!" – screamed Inuyasha.

- "This will be entertaining. I'll finish you off slow and painfully" – said Kagura.

- "We'll see about that!" – said Kagome as she shot a Sacred Arrow at Kagura, and while she didn't hit her, it at least managed to nullify the wind she was manipulating.

- "Again with the old trick of nullifying my wind?" – said Kagura as she looked at what Kagome did with surprise – "Why do you even bother doing it now?" -

- "For this! Bakuryuuha!" – screamed Inuyasha as he swung his sword towards the ground, fusing the Kaze no Kizu with the energy from the remains of Kagura's wind and Kagome's arrow, forming a whirlwind that he launched at her.

- " What!?" – muttered Kagura surprised.

- "You're finished" – said Inuyasha as the Bakuryuuha repeatedly hit her. However, Kagura somehow managed to escape from it, taking Hakudoushi away with her – "Damn!" -

Naraku then appeared in front of him, levitating in the air.

- "Looks like this is between us now, Inuyasha" – said Naraku with a very confident attitude.

- "It's payback time!" – said Inuyasha as he pointed his sword in Naraku's direction – "You'll pay for what you did to me and Kikyou!" –

- "And for all the people you've made suffer!" – said Kagome readying her bow and arrows.

- "Right! It's time to end this!" – said Miroku. Naraku began sweating upon seeing how he still had these three as their opponents, and before he could do anything, Miroku launched some ofudas in his direction in order to distract him.

- "Okay, it's time! Inuyasha, let's do you know what!" – said Kagome.

- "Right! Kongousouha!" – said Inuyasha as he launched the diamond barrage. Naraku was still distracted mocking Miroku at the ineffectiveness of the ofudas, so he didn't see the attack coming and took the full brunt of it, getting his barrier destroyed and severely damaged.

- "Kagome, do it now!" – said Inuyasha.

- "Okay! Hit it!" – said Kagome as she shot a Sacred Arrow while Inuyasha transformed Tessaiga in its crystalline form again.

- "Here I go! Bakuryuuha!" – screamed Inuyasha as he launched a crystallized whirlwind. With the combination of these attacks, Naraku was utterly destroyed to the point only one of his eyes remained, but he merely teleported himself out before they could do anything else.

- "Goddamn it all! It got away again! Aarrghhh!" – screamed Inuyasha in fury as he plunged his sword into the ground with force, while Kagome threw her bow to the ground.

- "Why!? Why is it that when we're about to defeat him, he always has to run away!" – said Kagome enraged.

- "Come on, calm down. At the least we're still alive. Remember that we can't defeat him yet, as we haven't found his weak point" – said Miroku to remind them.

- "Hell, I hate that bastard!" – said Inuyasha

As for Sango, she had already finished her fight, though with no results because Kohaku was taken away by Hakudoushi and Kagura when they ran away. She walked up to them, knowing they were so distraught partially because their minds were now more childish.

- "Don't worry about it. Now, we should hurry and go into the cave before anything else happens" – said her calmly, though she was still sad because she couldn't get Kohaku back to her side.

- "Yeah..." – nodded Kagome and Inuyasha.

Meanwhile, Kohaku, Hakudoushi and Kagura were flying back to Naraku's hideout in some distant place…

- "It was unexpected that they were so strong, even after being turned into kids" – commented Kagura.

- "You are such a fool, Kagura. You should know that appearances are deceitful" – said Hakudoushi.

- "You just say that because you're a kid yourself" – said Kagura mocking him.

- "Shut up" – replied Hakudoushi.

- 'I just hope that I'll be able to break free from this slavery someday…' – thought Kagura bitterly, as she was bound to Naraku because he could end her life if she tried doing anything aside of following his orders.

- "Onee-san, when the time comes, I'll tell you everything… but for now, I must search for a way to get rid of that baby…" – thought Kohaku, knowing that unless they destroyed the baby-shaped monster that contained Naraku's heart, they would never be able to truly defeat him.

- "What are you thinking, Kohaku?" – asked Hakudoushi.

- "About nothing... in particular" – replied Kohaku as he tried to put his mind blank so Hakudoushi wouldn't be able to read his thoughts.

Back with Inuyasha and the others, they entered the cave, seeing it was still the same as how when they came to it the first time.

- "Okay, it's time" – said Inuyasha as he went up to the blue water spring, took a bit from it with his hands, and drank it.

- "Weird... I don't feel anything different..." – said Inuyasha. But then, he began shining in a white light, blinding everyone. When the light vanished, Inuyasha was there standing, back to his normal age and with his clothes adjusted to fit his size.

- "Aah! It feels great to be back to normal!" – said he as he stretched – "Kagome, come here! It's your turn!" -

- "Err... Inuyasha" – said Kagome fidgeting a little – "I think I should do it elsewhere…" –

- "Eh? Why?" – asked Inuyasha confused.

- "My clothes can't readjust to my body when I change ages, right?" – she said as she blushed – "So my kosode could end up bursting if I try getting back to normal like this!" –

- "Okay, okay" – said Inuyasha a bit annoyed, but he got the point Kagome was trying to make - "So what are you going to do now?" –

- "Just store a bit of that water in a bottle, and drink it in a place where no one else can see you" – suggested Sango – "There's a forest with a clearing very close to this place, so you could change back there. I'll even go with you in case anything happens" –

- "Okay, thanks Sango-chan!" – said Kagome as she ran to her and hugged her. She then took out a small bottle from her backpack and filled it with water from the spring.

- "Okay, wait for us here. We'll be back very soon" – said Sango as she and Kagome began leaving the cave.

- "Do you mind if I go too?" – asked Miroku with a mischievous smile, but this only got him a slap from Sango.

- "You got what you deserved" – said Inuyasha with a gesture of repugnance imprinted in his face.

After a short while, Sango and Kagome returned, the latter back to her normal age and wearing her typical school uniform.

- "This is great! I'm me again!" – she said cheerfully, to which the others smiled. She and Inuyasha then took their medallions off and stored them in her backpack.

- "And you still can remember it all?" – asked Miroku.

- "Yeah. With all details" – replied Inuyasha, to which Kagome also nodded.

- "Okay, we have no other business to do here, right? We should go back to the village now" – said Sango.

- "You're right, Sango-chan. Just give a second" – said Kagome as she winked.

They all left the cave, though Kagome was the last one to leave it. Due to this, Inuyasha waited for her at the entrance until she came up to his side.

- "It was about time! Why were you taking so long in there?" – asked Inuyasha.

- "Because of this!" – replied Kagome as she showed him two bottles filled to the brim: one with pink water, and the other with blue water.

- "Why are you carrying that back with you? Do you wanna go through all that again?" – asked Inuyasha.

- "Yup, I thought it could be fun to do it again at some other point," – replied Kagome as she smiled – "As long as we have the medallions, nothing bad should happen to us. And besides, I now have some clothes I can use for that time" -

- "You're right. Well, it might be not so bad to do it when things settle down a bit around here" – said Inuyasha crossing his arms.

- "Let me guess, you liked the idea of having me as your friend when you were a kid?" – asked Kagome as she blushed a bit.

- "Yeah. Back then I didn't have any friends" – he replied with a sad smile

- "But now you've got us all" – said Kagome to remind him of that.

- "That's right. You all might be a pain in the neck sometimes, but… I've gotta say that it's better than being alone" – said Inuyasha as he looked up. Kagome was about to get angry with the first part of what he said, but she smiled upon hearing the rest.

- "By the way... you know we have like alternate personalities when we have our memories sealed, right? I'm thinking it could be a good idea to let them come out and play every now and then…" – said Kagome, feeling as if another presence was sleeping deep inside her soul.

- "In other words, to drink the water without wearing the medallion?" – asked Inuyasha.

- "Exactly!" – replied Kagome.

They then focused their gazes on the bottles, with the liquids they contained shining brightly under the sunlight, and after storing them again, they began walking and stepped up the pace to reach their friends. They walked back to the village as twilight began setting in.

However... they didn't know this was just the beginning. Soon after, something different to everything they knew would come to this world… something that would put the destiny of not only their world, but also all others, to be left hanging of a thread…

(Endings: Shinjitsu no Uta)

The End


End file.
